Germany’s coronavirus second wave ‘well under way due to people getting bored of social distancing’
A SECOND wave of coronavirus is already underway in Germany, warned the country’s top docs.
According to doctors' union The Marburger Bund, the average infection increase of 700 cases per day is due to Germans "bored" of social distancing as one study suggests "pandemic fatigue" is beginning to set in.
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Susanne Johna, president of Marburger Bund told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper Germany was already in a "shallow uprising," adding Germans risked frittering away any progress made against the virus.
She told : "Even a shallow rise is a wave."
The doctor said Germans must be reminded they are still dealing with a serious illness as "we see part of the population no longer takes the rules seriously".
The number of German coronavirus cases rose by 741 yesterday to 212,022 and deaths were up by 12, with an average of 700 new cases per day - the highest level since mid May.
Initially Europe's largest economy had seen measured success dealing with the pandemic, owing to excellent testing and a prepared healthcare sustem.
But now German hospitals are making intensive care beds available for more Covid-19 patients and warning some non-essential operations may not take place.
And Germany's governmental infectious diseases agency expressed "serious concern" about the steady uptick in infections.
It comes after some 20,000 protesters marched through Berlin last week against coronavirus restrictions - despite a surge in cases in Germany.
Protesters flooded the streets of the capital on Saturday in defiance of measures imposed to curb the spread of the virus, claiming their personal freedoms had been violated and the "end of the pandemic" had arrived.
German cops eventually had to break the protesters up after repeated requests to don masks and maintain social distancing were ignored.
And a study of 3,600 people by Mannheim University found around 50 per cent of Germans were now socialising several times a week, compared with 30 per cent in May and 10 per cent at the beginning of lockdown in March.
Data from the study, showing a "fear index" suggests worry about the virus has almost halved - with the perceived danger at about 35 points out of 100, down from nearly 60 in March.
The "fear index" also showed on a scale of one to eight, Germans now rated their anxiety at 3.5 down from 4.3 at the height of the crisis.
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Dr Johna said: "It’s understandable, because people have a certain yearning for things to be normal," but added it was no longer a case of enforcing social measures through harsh fines and penalties.
She added: "I almost believe it would help us a bit to depict what patients really go through.
"Perhaps that would lead those people who deny today that the coronavirus exists to see things more clearly.”
