german chancellor angela merkel says her
country could
again go into lockdown if corona virus
case numbers continue to rise
a decision could come as soon as monday
she was speaking after a virtual summit
on the country's troubled vaccination
program
national and regional leaders agreed
matters to speed things up
but anger is growing
another rebirth for a german icon
berlin's tempelhof airport
was used to bring in food to the city's
west during the cold war
after closure it housed refugees during
the 2015 crisis
and now it's being used as a massive
vaccination center
those who are here to get a shot have to
show proof they're eligible
i'm a teacher and i received an
invitation today
i've been waiting for this and i came
here immediately
[Music]
but until now that teacher is one of
relatively few germans to be vaccinated
the country has been facing vaccine
shortages since it launched its program
in december
so far only priority groups such as the
elderly have received a jab
but the government says is expecting
vaccine supplies to increase from april
on
allowing mass vaccination to begin
we want to vaccinate as many people as
we can as quickly and flexibly as
possible
in the second quarter of 2021 in germany
our slogan
vaccinate vaccinate and then vaccinate
some more
under the plans family doctors will be
sent vaccine doses
and allowed to decide which of their
patients are most in need of protection
against covert 19 and areas along the
country's borders with france and the
czech republic
will receive more doses case numbers
there have been especially high
because of the infection numbers in
germany's neighbours
we've received more doses than planned
from the eu
and they're going to border areas which
have a lot of cases of specific
mutations
but even as the german chancellor
promised relief to come
she warned that the situation in the
country's covert wards is worsening
since german leaders decided to
partially relax lockdown
measures in early march infections have
been rising sharply
experts are warning tougher measures are
inevitable merkel agrees
we're seeing exponential growth and an r
number far above one
we agreed to stop these relaxations if
infection rates get too high
we'll unfortunately have to do so
in recent weeks some german high streets
have reopened due to that relaxed
lockdown
soon they could again be forced to close
and with widespread vaccination still a
government promise
it's uncertain when the country will be
back to normal
and for more on this i'm joined now by
dw correspondent thomas
sparrow thomas let's start with that
third wave that germany
is facing why are we facing uh
such a rapid rise in coronavirus
infection when it seemed just a few
weeks ago the numbers were falling
it's not only a rapid rise and it's an
exponential growth and
it's particularly concerning for german
authorities we heard angela merkel there
stress just how difficult the situation
nowadays is
and why probably germany will go back to
stricter
lockdown in fact the first german cities
like the city of hamburg already
reversed some of those
opening steps that we saw in the last
few weeks when we look at the reasons
one of the key reasons is the presence
of those more contagious
variants here in germany in particular
the b117 variant which was first found
in the united kingdom and which now
accounts for over 70 percent of tested
samples here in germany to give you a
bit of context
at the beginning of february that
percentage was around six
percent so this gives you a clear idea
of why the barriers are a particular
concern a second issue has to do
with germany's border regions we also
saw that in that report
but the fact is that many of germany's
neighbors are also badly affected by the
coronavirus or at least regions of
some of those neighboring countries the
french region of mosel
for example or tyrol in house in austria
or
czech republic so that's the second
reason and the third reason is obviously
the opening steps that we already
discussed opening steps come with more
contacts more contacts normally come
with uh more infections so this gives
you an idea of why the situation in
germany is now so difficult
not only the general situation but also
for for authorities to decide
what the next steps will be sure so okay
worsening situation
uh obviously one of the solutions merkel
is putting forward
is to allow family doctors to begin
giving the vaccines but
with only a million doses available to
general practitioners in the first week
that makes around 20 doses per doctor
how does that change anything
well if if you're expecting a very rapid
change then probably you'll be
disappointed but the
gps or family doctors will play a very
important role when it comes
for example to gaining more flexibility
in the in the process that's something
that was stressed by angela merkel and
which is an important point
uh to for example go beyond that very
strict guideline as who should be
vaccinated
when so certainly one element which is
important here is the flexibility
another element which plays an important
role when it comes to family doctors or
gps is
trust trust has been affected in the
call vaccination
program which has been very slow and you
know that gps have very good
relationships normally with their own
patients
so they will hopefully be able to
increase trust in the vaccine in
particular the astrozenica vaccine
so it's not only about speed and it's
also about increasing trust it's also
about increasing flexibility
in a vaccination program which has been
criticized since it began
last year in december and just really
quickly thomas
german generally are quite frustrated
with the back and forth and lockdowns in
the slow rollout
they are frustrated that's something
that we saw this week also in
nepal most germans are actually very
critical of
germany's current management and that's
essentially why
german chancellor angela merkel and the
leaders met on friday here in berlin why
they're actually going to meet again
next week because they understand that
there's frustration they understand that
it's fatigue and they need to change the
situation as quickly as possible okay
thomas
sparrow reporting for us on the reaction
to the pandemic and vaccine rollout
thanks so much