German leader Steinmeier calls on public to restrict contacts as cases rise

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called on the public to restrict their number of contacts as a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections hits the country, while fears grow about the arrival of a new variant.

"It is important that we all act together now," Steinmeier wrote in an editorial for Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "Let's stick to the rules, let's reduce our contacts once again. Let's do it so that schools and childcare centres don't close again, so that we don't have to completely shut down public life again."

His comments came a day after the German health authorities announced a record number of Covid-19 cases. In some regions, patients were transferred to other states as hospital wards filled up.

Acting Research Minister Anja Karliczek called on lawmakers to impose regulations requiring people to restrict their contacts, also for those who are fully vaccinated, in line with the recommendations of the Leopoldina Academy of Sciences.

"Politics should follow the advice of science without hesitation. We must not lose any more time," Karliczek told dpa.

The National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina called for the swift imposition of contact bans for of several weeks, also for those who have been vaccinated against Covid-19, in order to counter the fourth wave of cases.

The institute also called for an expansion of the booster vaccination campaign and for compulsory vaccination, at least for health workers.

The discussion of responses to the fourth wave of cases has gained greater urgency with the arrival of Omicron, a new and potentially more transmissible strain of Covid-19.