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 The seven-day incidence rate - the number of people per 100,000 to
be infected over the last week - hit 399.8 on Tuesday, up from 386.5
on Monday, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious
diseases showed.
Health Minister Jens Spahn called for more public spaces to be
restricted to those who were vaccinated or recently recovered from
COVID-19 and also had a negative test, in a bid to contain Germany's
fourth wave.
Spahn did not rule out lockdowns, although he said this would be
decided region by region. Some regions such as the hard-hit Saxony
and Bavaria are already taking measures such as cancelling Christmas
markets.
"The situation is not only serious, in some regions in Germany it is
now dramatic," Spahn told German Radio. "We are having to move
patients around as the intensive care units are full and that
doesn't just affect COVID-19 patients."
With Germany grappling with concerns about supply of the Biontech/Pfizer
vaccine, the company brought forward the delivery of one million
doses originally planned for December, Spahn told health ministry
officials on Monday, according to two government sources.
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 That would enable it to deliver
3 million instead of 2 million doses next week
as people rush to get booster shots and
appointments at vaccine centres are booked out.
Whether it would affect the total number of
vaccines assigned to Germany for the rest of the
year remained to be decided, the sources said.
The surge in cases in Germany, and in
neighbouring Denmark, prompted the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on
Monday to advise against travel to the two
countries, raising its travel recommendation to
"Level Four: Very High".
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Riham Alkhousaa and
Sarah Marsh; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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