Germany must suppress virus now or risk losing control, Merkel aide says

BERLIN: Germany must bring down coronavirus infections in the next few weeks or risk new virus mutations that are resistant to vaccines, and should impose night-time curfews in regions with high caseloads, said a top aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"We are in the most dangerous phase of the pandemic," Merkel's chief of staff Helge Braun told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "The next few weeks will determine whether we can foreseeably get the pandemic under control." If the number of infections rises rapidly again there is a growing danger that the next virus mutation will become resistant to the vaccine, Braun said.