(Bloomberg) — Chancellor Olaf Scholz is set to push through tighter contact restrictions in Germany as the omicron variant of Covid-19 threatens Europe’s largest economy just as families gather for the Christmas holidays.
The latest measures, which come on top of existing curbs that mainly affect the unvaccinated, include a limit on gatherings to 10 people starting Dec. 28. The restrictions, which Scholz is discussing with regional leaders on Tuesday, also apply to citizens who are inoculated or have recovered from the virus, according to a draft agreement prepared by the chancellor’s office.
Officials including Health Minister Karl Lauterbach have been stepping up warnings about the faster-spreading omicron strain, and Lauterbach last week raised the possibility of a “massive fifth wave” of infections sweeping across the country.
The RKI public-health institute this week lifted its Covid-19 threat level to “very high” and on Tuesday updated its guidelines urging Germans to adopt “maximum contact restrictions” immediately.
Even as daily infections continue to dip, authorities are concerned by omicron’s explosive spread in countries such as the U.K. and Denmark, with a similar outbreak assumed to be imminent in Germany.
The new measures nonetheless stop well short of the type of lockdown that kept Germans inside over last year’s holidays, and has been imposed in countries like neighboring Netherlands.
The focus must remain on the country’s effort to roll out booster shots accompanied by broader contact restrictions, according to Justice Minister Marco Buschmann.
“The situation remains serious, I don’t want to pretend otherwise,” Buschmann told Deutschlandfunk radio on Tuesday. “It’s never recommended to rule anything out completely in a dynamic situation, but at the moment we want to focus on the booster campaign and work with contact restrictions.”
Germany is registering more than a million vaccinations a day on weekdays, though most are booster shots, now covering almost a third of the population.
Firework Ban
The country’s advisory committee on vaccines issued a recommendation Tuesday that people get booster shots after three months, rather than the previously recommended six months.
A relatively low 70.4% of Germans are fully vaccinated, leaving some 13 million people above the age of 18 vulnerable to the virus.
Measures on the table Tuesday also include closing nightclubs to limit social interaction over the New Year festive period, according to the draft.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, adopting a measure from last year’s holiday, on Tuesday issued a ban on the sale of fireworks over the New Year in an attempt to ease the burden on emergency medical staff.
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