79% Germans don't see return to normal life in 2022

Optimism is thin on the ground in Germany at the turn of the year, with just 15 per cent of people confident that the pandemic will be largely or completely over in 2022, according to the results of a YouGov survey.

Some 79 per cent of participants in the representative poll, which was conducted from December 21 to 23, believe that the coronavirus will continue to impact general life at least partially in the coming year. Thirty-four per cent expect the impact to be considerable.

With that, the outlook among the general public was even gloomier than a year before, when YouGov found that 26 per cent of Germans saw some kind of end in sight.

Back then, Germany was in lockdown but the launch of the vaccination campaign was seen as grounds for hope.

As the first jabs were administered in the country in December 2020, and then health minister Jens Spahn said, "The autumn and winter ... of next year shall no longer be dominated by this pandemic."

However, today Germany is counting daily case numbers that are far higher and restrictions remain in place for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

The current scope of the ongoing crisis in Germany is difficult to gauge due to a lag in testing and reporting of cases over the Christmas and New Year period, as health officials have stressed in recent days.

On Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported an additional 42,770 confirmed cases and 383 deaths. Last week, those numbers stood at 44,927 and 425.

The RKI also announced a slightly higher seven-day incidence rate of 207.4 new cases per 100,000 people.

The seven-day average of patients currently requiring hospital treatment for Covid-19 fell slightly on Thursday to 3.15 per 100,000, according to the RKI. It reported a hospitalization rate of 3.18 on Wednesday.

The number of Omicron cases in Germany has been on the rise, with the RKI reporting on Thursday that 16,748 infections have so far been attributed to the highly contagious variant, going from 3.1 per cent of all cases in mid-December to 17.5 per cent by December 26.

Provisional data from the government agency for disease control showed 3,619 new Omicron cases had been detected, a 28-per-cent increase on the previous day.

Germany's strict data protection laws were criticized by the head of the intensive care register of the German medical body DIVI, Christian Karagiannidis, on Thursday.

"What we need is a maximum digitalization offensive," Karagiannidis said, adding that the rules had "prevented a relatively large amount in the last two years" and urging the government to reassess the legislation in view of the urgent need for more information on public health.

"If the health insurance companies know exactly when you were vaccinated and can see when the vaccination effect wears off, then you see straight away what an incredible effect this has on public health," Karagiannidis explained.

In view of the spiking of Omicron cases in Germany, current Health Minister Karl Lauterbach announced on Wednesday evening that he would be making proposals for the further tightening of restrictions next week, after the scheduled meeting between German state premiers and Chancellor Olaf Scholz on January 7.

"We have to prepare something like this properly. A quick fix is wrong," Lauterbach said, revealing that he expected the number of Omicron cases in Germany to double within four to five days.