Germany’s national center for disease control reported a record-high number of new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as one of the country’s top virologists warned that another lockdown would be needed if vaccinations were not ramped up.

The 39,676 cases reported by the Robert Koch Institute surpassed the previous daily record of 37,120 new cases reported on Friday. Germany’s infection rate rose to 232.1 new cases per 100,000 residents in the past seven days, the institute said.

“We have a real emergency right now,” Christian Drosten, head of virology at Berlin’s Charity Hospital, said of the situation in many hospital intensive care units across the country. “We have to do something now.”

Government officials have repeatedly said they do not intend to impose a lockdown and have instead appealed to residents to get vaccinated.

Germany currently has a caretaker national government following the September federal election. The parties that are expected to plan the next government to introduce legislation this week that would allow the declaration of a “pandemic state of national scope” from March 2020 to expire at the end of the month and establish a new one for the coronavirus Legal framework will be provided. Measure.

As in other periods of the pandemic, the country has a patchwork of regional regulations. Most venues restrict access to many indoor facilities and programs to those who have been vaccinated against the virus, those who have recovered from COVID-19 or have recently received negative test results – the latter category now being included in some areas. has been laid out. But, sometimes the rules are followed loosely.

Several hospitals have said in recent days that they are again working at their limit and they are so full of COVID-19 patients that they cannot admit new patients at this time.

The Berlin charity said on Tuesday it had to cancel planned surgeries because of the number of staff members caring for people with COVID-19. Officials have said that most of the latest patients have not been vaccinated.

According to official figures, about 67% of Germany’s 83 million population has been fully vaccinated. Unlike some other European countries, the government has refrained from making vaccines mandatory for any professional group.

“We probably need to re-control infection activity through contact measures – maybe not, but definitely,” he said.

“We are in a bad situation: we have 15 million people who could have been vaccinated and should have been vaccinated,” Drosten said, adding that at least 100,000 people could die from COVID-19 if vaccinations are not done sooner. Huh.

Since the start of the pandemic, 96,963 people have died of COVID-19 in Germany, according to official figures.

The country’s Standing Committee on Immunization, Stico, published a new recommendation on Wednesday advising that all people under the age of 30 receive only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The Sticko said the recommendation was based on recent analyzes showing that a rare side effect, heart and chest swelling, was more common in younger recipients of the Moderna-made vaccine than in those taking the Pfizer-BioNTech shot. was seen once.

The committee noted that side effects appear to be rare, and in most cases people recover without any problems.