Jens Spahn: Germany’s third COVID wave appears to be ‘broken’

Jens Spahn: Germany’s third COVID wave appears to be ‘broken’

Germany appears to have “broken” its third wave of coronavirus infections, Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday, before warning against a premature easing of restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.

“The third wave appears to have broken,” Spahn told a news conference in Berlin. “The infection figures are dropping again, but we are still at a high level. They are not yet falling everywhere at the same rate, but they are falling,” he said.

Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases reported 18,485 new coronavirus infections on Friday, a drop of almost 10,000 cases when compared with the health agency’s figure from two weeks ago.

The incidence rate in Germany is also gradually decreasing. The number of new infections per 100,000 people over the past seven days now stands at 125.7, and it dropped back below the 100-mark where restrictions can be eased in the capital Berlin.

Spahn guards against easing lockdown

But Spahn warned that a hasty retraction of recently imposed curbs “would only help the virus.”

“In this phase of the pandemic, it is really a matter of not gambling away what has been achieved,” he said.

Germany applied a so-called emergency brake on April 24, enforcing stricter measures nationwide for any areas with a seven-day incidence higher than 100 per 100,000 people.

Some regions are beginning to