Berlin, Sep 8 (Agency) German Health Minister Jens Spahn warned on Wednesday that the fourth wave of coronavirus was already rearing its head among the unvaccinated, putting the entire nation at risk. “Every decision on whether to get vaccinated will determine how safely we will get through fall and winter. What we are seeing right now is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” he told a news conference. Spahn said that more than 90% of COVID-19 patients in intensive care were not vaccinated.
The share of those who do not have immunity against the virus, particularly its more transmissible Delta variant, is too high to rule out a huge strain on the health care system in the coming months, he said. Lothar Wieler, president of the national Robert Koch Institute for disease control, told reporters that a failure to rapidly increase vaccination rates would put Germany on track for an explosive rise in cases. “The pandemic is not over yet. If we do not increase vaccination rates drastically, the ongoing fourth wave can take a fulminant course,” he said. Spahn and Wieler stressed that immunization was the country’s only way to end the epidemic. Spahn said vaccination remained voluntary but urged the undecided, including teens over 12, to do the right thing.