German Coronavirus Infection Spread "Clearly Exponential": Health Authorities

Doctors will now have to inform patients about the possible blood clotting risk before giving them the jabs.

Coronavirus infection numbers in Germany are rising at a "very clearly exponential rate" as highly contagious variants drive up case numbers in the EU's biggest country, health authorities said Friday. "It is very possible that we will have a similar situation over Easter to the one we had before Christmas, with very high case numbers, many severe cases and deaths, and hospitals that are overwhelmed," the vice president of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases, Lars Schaade, told reporters.  The RKI on Friday reported 17,482 new infections in the previous 24 hours and 226 deaths in Germany, with the seven-day incidence rate soaring to 96 per 100,000 people despite a months-long shutdown of large swaths of public life. The grim news came as Germany resumed administering AstraZeneca's Covid-19 jabs after the European regulator EMA assessed it was "safe and effective" to use.