'Get jabbed, cured or dead in few months': German Health Minister tells citizens amid COVID-19 surge

 To reduce the risk of serious illness, Health Minister Jens Spahn urged Germans to get vaccinated, including with booster shots if their first round of inoculation occurred more than six months ago.

Berlin: The government of Germany has sounded an alert over Delta variant amid a sharp rise in new Covid-19 cases in the country and urged everyone to get vaccinated at the earliest. German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday that the rapid rise in coronavirus cases means it's likely everyone in the country who isn't vaccinated will have caught COVID-19 by the end of the winter, and some of those will die.

Official figures have showed more than 30,000 newly confirmed cases in Germany over the past 24 hours, an increase of about 50% compared to one week ago. The country is this week expected to pass 100,000 coronavirus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Hospitals warn that ICU capacities are nearly exhausted, with some patients having to be transferred to clinics in other parts of Germany. To reduce the risk of serious illness, Health Minister Jens Spahn urged Germans to get vaccinated, including with booster shots if their first round of inoculation occurred more than six months ago.