Germany’s disease control agency on Friday urged against ending lockdown measures prematurely, warning that doing so might trigger a new wave of coronavirus.
“WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BE NEGLIGENT NOW”
Lars Schaade, vice head of the Robert Koch Institute, told a news conference on Friday that Germany’s relative success in combating coronavirus could have not been possible without the timely imposed lockdown measures. “And we must keep it that way. We cannot afford to be negligent now,” he said, in response to calls for ending the coronavirus lockdown measures faster.
Schaade warned that being too hasty in lifting restrictions could lead to a rapid increase in new coronavirus cases, overburdening the health system and causing many deaths. “We have seen this in other countries. And we have seen how quickly this could happen,” he said.
Almost 107,000 people have recovered from the virus so far, the Robert Koch Institute has reported.
Germany has the fifth-highest tally of reported coronavirus infections in the world, behind the US, Spain, Italy, and France. But its death toll remains far lower than other hard-hit countries.
