German officials eye new restrictions amid surge in infections

Germany’s state and federal politicians are working to implement new rules to combat COVID-19 as the country’s cases surge.

The country saw almost 40,000 new cases on Tuesday, marking the third daily case record in just a week, according to The New York Times. 

New rules have been proposed and will be discussed in Parliament on Thursday but they would not be enacted into law prior to next week and are not as strict as experts have recommended, the Times reported.

Specifically, the law would bring free COVID-19 tests back for all people in the country after that expensive plan was dropped last month in hopes of encouraging more people to get vaccinated. 

Some states, including some that were particularly hard-hit by the virus, have or plan to impose stricter policies like mandating vaccines or requiring proof of a prior COVID-19 infection before using certain services, the Times added.

Germany was once seen as a model for dealing with the public health crisis, but now, as infections surge, things are less in control. Experts have warned that death tolls could double if Germany does not take sufficient steps to mitigate the spread of the virus, according to the Times.

In Germany, 67 percent of the population is fully vaccinated and the country is behind only the U.S., Russia and the U.K. globally in terms of its daily case average, according to the Coronavirus World Map from the Times.