Skip to content

Subscriber Only

Prognosis

Europe Faces Mounting Vaccine Pressure as German Deaths Jump

Rise in fatalities comes as Berlin considers longer lockdown
Europe has agreed to buy more vaccine doses to fight the virus

TOPSHOT-GERMANY-HEALTH-VIRUS-health-virus-epidemic — Photographer: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

By

Daniel Schaefer,

Raymond Colitt, and

December 30, 2020, 6:05 AM UTCUpdated onDecember 30, 2020, 2:57 PM UTC

Germany’s daily coronavirus deaths surpassed 1,000 for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, underscoring the urgency facing Europe’s leaders to slow the spread and roll out vaccines.

There were 1,122 fatalities in the 24 hours through Wednesday morning, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Along with the mounting death toll, the number of Covid-19 patients in German intensive care units has risen steadily, prompting warnings that the health-care system could become overburdened.