COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany has resulted in 38,437,756^[3] confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 174,979^[3] deaths.

On 27 January 2020, the first case in Germany was confirmed near Munich, Bavaria.^[5] By mid February, the arising cluster of cases had been fully contained.^[6] On 25 and 26 February, multiple cases related to the Italian outbreak were detected in Baden-Württemberg. 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.^[7] On 9 March, the first two deaths in Germany were reported from Essen and Heinsberg.^[8] New clusters were introduced in other regions via Heinsberg as well as via people arriving from China, Iran and Italy,^[9] from where non-Germans could arrive by plane until 17–18 March. From 13 March, German states mandated school and kindergarten closures, postponed academic semesters and prohibited visits to nursing homes to protect the elderly. Two days later, borders to Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland were closed.^[10] By 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.

On 15 April 2020, Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of "fragile intermediate success" that had been achieved in the fight against the pandemic. The same day, a first loosening of restrictions was announced,^[11] continued in early May,^[12] and eventually, holiday travels were allowed in cooperation with other European countries.^[13] A number of state premiers pressed for faster relaxation of restrictions, putting them at odds with Merkel, who favoured a more cautious approach,^[14] a pattern that repeated itself later that year.^[15] Substantial local outbreaks in meat processing plants drew public attention beyond the epidemiological context to poor working conditions. By late August, infection numbers had returned to the levels of April, and a possible second wave of the pandemic was under debate.^[16] By mid October, it was believed by experts to be inevitable.^[17] A partial lockdown from 2 November only temporarily halted the rise in case numbers;^[18] the total number of reported infections since the start of the pandemic crossed one million on 27 November.^[19] A hard lockdown from 15 December made FFP2 masks or other clinical masks mandatory on public transport and in shops. Repeated lockdown extensions were mainly motivated by the appearance of the Alpha variant and other mutations. Death rates in nursing homes remained high until late January 2021^[20] but dropped strongly in February, likely due to residents and workers at these facilities having been prioritised in the vaccination campaign.^[21] The second wave peaked in January.^[22]

In March 2021, the Alpha variant drove a third wave of infections.^[23] The average age of the infected, as well as of those requiring intensive care, was much younger than in the first two waves.^[22] A reform of the Infection Protection Act in late April increased federal government powers, allowing it to mandate pandemic measures in hard-hit districts;^[24] in November 2021, the measures were ruled by the Federal Constitutional Court to have been legal.^[25] From late April, infection numbers started to continuously decrease; the third wave was seen as broken by early May.^[26] The Delta variant became dominant among the new infections by the end of June, and from early July, cases started to increase again.^[27] 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.^[28] 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.^[29] From mid October, infections and intensive care unit admissions started to increase again.^[30] 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",^[31] which was criticized by scientists for underrating the role of the vaccinated in the pandemic.^[32] Unprecedentedly high infection numbers led Germany to reintroduce free coronavirus testing in November, a month after they had been phased out,^[33] and to launch a booster campaign. Booster vaccinations were declared by new Health Minister Karl Lauterbach to be central to the government strategy of combating the Omicron variant.^[34] Warnings of a "massive fifth wave" driven by Omicron in December^[35] 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. Experts considered the absence of a decrease to be due to the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, which had ushered in the sixth wave of the pandemic, and expected more cases after the easing of pandemic measures scheduled to begin on 21 March.^[36][37]

Vaccinations with the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine began on 27 December 2020 (unofficially one day earlier); vaccinations with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine began in mid January, early February, and mid March 2021 respectively. Vaccinations with AstraZeneca were stalled on 16 March 2021 due to concerns about rare and potentially lethal side effects^[38] but resumed on 19 March after the European Medicines Agency deemed the vaccine "safe and effective".^[39] On 30 March, German vaccination commission STIKO recommended limiting the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to those aged 60 or over, but revised this on 22 April to allow for use in younger ages, subject to their consent to medical advice about the risks.^[40] Vaccinations accelerated in April, with a total of 15 million shots given that month. On 6 May, the AstraZeneca vaccine was made available to all adults,^[41] with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following on 10 May^[42] and all others on 7 June.^[43] Vaccination with AstraZeneca ceased on 1 December 2021.^[44] On 3 February 2022, the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine was approved.^[45] As of 25 November 2021^[update], 68.1 per cent of the total population had completed their vaccination, with considerable regional variation across states.^[46] In mid-January 2022, the RKI reported that just under 75 per cent had received at least one vaccination.^[47]

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