Warnings of a "massive fifth wave" driven by Omicron in December proved to be no exaggeration as daily case numbers rose up to over 200,000 by mid February 2022, and remained at a high level in March. Booster vaccinations were declared by new Health Minister Karl Lauterbach to be central to the government strategy of combating the Omicron variant. Unprecedentedly high infection numbers led Germany to reintroduce free coronavirus testing in November, a month after they had been phased out, and to launch a booster campaign. On 4 November, as almost 34,000 reported infections set a new record since the beginning of the pandemic, Health Minister Jens Spahn spoke of a "massive pandemic of the unvaccinated", which was criticized by scientists for underrating the role of the vaccinated in the pandemic. From mid October, infections and intensive care unit admissions started to increase again. With effect from 23 August, the so-called 3G rule gave those who were vaccinated, had recovered, or had a negative test result no older than 24 hours more freedom to visit numerous venues. On 20 August, the RKI assessed the country to have entered the fourth wave of the pandemic, again with most of the cases coming from the younger age groups. The Delta variant became dominant among the new infections by the end of June, and from early July, cases started to increase again. From late April, infection numbers started to continuously decrease the third wave was seen as broken by early May. A reform of the Infection Protection Act in late April increased federal government powers, allowing it to mandate pandemic measures in hard-hit districts in November 2021, the measures were ruled by the Federal Constitutional Court to have been legal. The average age of the infected, as well as of those requiring intensive care, was much younger than in the first two waves. In March 2021, the Alpha variant drove a third wave of infections. Death rates in nursing homes remained high until late January 2021 but dropped strongly in February, likely due to residents and workers at these facilities having been prioritised in the vaccination campaign. Repeated lockdown extensions were mainly motivated by the appearance of the Alpha variant and other mutations. A hard lockdown from 15 December made FFP2 masks or other clinical masks mandatory on public transport and in shops. A partial lockdown from 2 November only temporarily halted the rise in case numbers the total number of reported infections since the start of the pandemic crossed one million on 27 November. By mid October, it was believed by experts to be inevitable. By late August, infection numbers had returned to the levels of April, and a possible second wave of the pandemic was under debate. Substantial local outbreaks in meat processing plants drew public attention beyond the epidemiological context to poor working conditions. A number of state premiers pressed for faster relaxation of restrictions, putting them at odds with Merkel, who favoured a more cautious approach, a pattern that repeated itself later that year. The same day, a first loosening of restrictions was announced, continued in early May, and eventually, holiday travels were allowed in cooperation with other European countries. On 15 April 2020, Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of "fragile intermediate success" that had been achieved in the fight against the pandemic. īy 22 March, curfews were imposed in six German states while other states prohibited physical contact with more than one person from outside one's household. Two days later, borders to Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland were closed. From 13 March, German states mandated school and kindergarten closures, postponed academic semesters and prohibited visits to nursing homes to protect the elderly. New clusters were introduced in other regions via Heinsberg as well as via people arriving from China, Iran and Italy, from where non-Germans could arrive by plane until 17–18 March. On 9 March, the first two deaths in Germany were reported from Essen and Heinsberg. A carnival event on 15 February in Heinsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, was attended by a man identified as positive on 25 February in the outbreak which subsequently developed from infected participants, authorities were mostly no longer able to trace the likely chains of infections. On 25 and 26 February, multiple cases related to the Italian outbreak were detected in Baden-Württemberg. By mid February, the arising cluster of cases had been fully contained. On 27 January 2020, the first case in Germany was confirmed near Munich, Bavaria. The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany has resulted in 38,426,308 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 174,247 deaths.
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