Covid-19 will kill another 1 lakh people, warns Germany's top virologist

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Christian Drosten, one of Germany's top virologists, has warned that a further 100,000 people will die from Covid-19 if nothing is done to halt an aggressive fourth wave, the BBC reported. Case numbers have soared as Germany on Wednesday registered its highest rate of infection since the pandemic began, with almost 40,000 cases in a day.

"We have to act right now," said Drosten, who described a real emergency situation, the report said. Doctors in the intensive care Covid ward at Leipzig University Hospital have warned that this fourth wave could be the worst yet. The state of Saxony has the highest seven-day infection rate in Germany at 459 cases per 100,000 people. The national rate is 232.

It also has the lowest take-up of vaccine: 57 per cent of the population here have been immunised, the report added. Germany's Health Minister has publicly blamed those people for the soaring cases, describing the current situation as a "pandemic of the unvaccinated". At the start of this week, Saxony had banned unvaccinated people from bars, restaurants, public events and sport and leisure facilities. At least several other states are expected to follow suit, the report said.

Germany's anti-vaxxers are furious with several thousand of people protesting in Leipzig last weekend. Sixteen million Germans over the age of 12 have not been fully vaccinated. The German government has admitted that it's unlikely to persuade many of those people now, and politicians worry that social divisions might deepen.

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