Germany’s coronavirus infection rate has risen to its highest level since the start of the pandemic, public health figures showed on Monday, and doctors warned they will need to postpone scheduled operations in coming weeks to cope. The seven-day incidence rate – the number of people per 100,000 to be infected over the last week – rose to 201.1, higher than a previous record of 197.6 in December last year, the figures from the Robert Koch Institute showed on Monday. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 4,782,546 from 4,767,033 a day earlier. The number of deaths increased by 33 to a total of 96,558. Bavaria state premier Markus Soeder called for more decisive action in view of the new peak in the incidence rate. More needs to be done “than a little compulsory testing in old people’s homes”, he told Deutschlandfunk radio. He called for tests to be offered free of charge again, vaccination centres to be reactivated and for states and the federal government to coordinate their strategies. Germany has abolished free testing to incentivise people to get shots. Christian Karagiannidis, scientific director at the DIVI association for intensive and emergency medicine, said an expected rise in coronavirus cases in coming weeks meant some scheduled operations would have to be postponed. “We will only be able to cope with the burden of all emergencies if savings are made somewhere else, though definitely not with surgical cancer treatments,” he told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. Germany has already had to relocate some patients from regions with overburdened hospitals. The three German parties working to agree on a coalition government by early December will present proposals to combat a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country on Monday, daily newspaper Die Welt said.
Russia’s COVID death toll up by record 1,211
Moscow [Russia], November 9 Russia registered 39,160 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from 39,400 the day before, bringing the cumulative total to 8,873,655, the federal response center said on Tuesday.”Over the past day, 39,160 COVID-19 cases were confirmed across 85 Russian regions, including 3,200 cases (8.2 per cent) without clinical symptoms,” the center said, adding that the rate of increase fell to 0.44 per cent. Moscow has the highest number of new cases with 5,287 infections, up from 4,982 the day before. The Russian capital is followed by the Moscow region with 2,818 cases, down from 3,429, and St. Petersburg with 2,680 cases, up from 2,597. The response center reported a new record of 1,211 deaths linked to the coronavirus, up from 1,190 the day before, bringing the country’s death toll to 249,215.In the same 24 hours, 32,036 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals across the country, up from 25,582 the day before, bringing the total to 7,619,596. (ANI/Sputnik)
Dutch hospitals urge new measures as COVID-19 cases near record |