Unvaccinated Germans face more COVID tests to avoid restrictions

Berlin: Germany needs to increase testing and boost vaccinations to avoid another COVID-19 lockdown, the conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor said on Tuesday, before government talks to curb a rise in new cases.

Less than seven weeks before a federal election, Merkel and leaders of the 16 federal states will try to agree on measures to avoid a new wave of infections, driven by the spread of the Delta variant, and avert unpopular restrictions. "We want to and will test more to avoid a new lockdown," Armin Laschet told the North Rhine-Westphalia assembly.