Germany is facing its worst surge in Covid-19 infections so far, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday.
Her stark warning was revealed by party colleagues shortly after Health Minister Jens Spahn said the winter would end with most Germans "vaccinated, cured or dead" from the disease.
Mrs Merkel told her centre-right Christian Democratic Union of Germany party that the measures currently being taken to tackle the outbreak were insufficient, with the federal system and a looming change of government meaning the situation is largely out of her hands.
"We are in a highly dramatic situation. What is in place now is not sufficient," Mrs Merkel was quoted as saying by German media.
"We have a situation that will surpass everything we have had so far".
Mr Spahn said anyone who was not vaccinated was likely to be infected with the fast-spreading Delta variant.
Politicians are urging more people to be vaccinated as infection rates reach record levels, daily deaths climb into the hundreds and hospitals come under increasing pressure. Only 68 per cent of Germany's population is fully inoculated against Covid-19.
Under tightened restrictions, people entering their workplace or travelling on public transport will need to show proof they are vaccinated, cured or have tested negative.
“At the end of the winter, pretty much everyone in Germany will, as it’s sometimes been put a bit cynically, be vaccinated, cured or dead," Mr Spahn said.
“With the very infectious Delta variant, it’s very, very likely that anyone who is not vaccinated will get infected in the next few months, unless they’re very, very careful in every walk of life.”
He said he remained sceptical of making vaccination compulsory, but would not stand in the way if the majority in parliament sets rules for certain professions.
A new government is expected to take office within weeks, with Mrs Merkel and Mr Spahn serving as caretakers until then.
The Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats, who plan to announce a four-year programme for government this week, used the majority they won in September's election to push through an amended coronavirus law last week.
Mrs Merkel and the leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, Markus Soeder, criticised the decision to let a state of emergency expire. The move takes away powers to close schools and shops.
The three parties "have misread the situation", Mr Soeder said.
“ It is not appropriate to scrap the state of emergency. It is a fundamental mistake.”
The lagging vaccination drive has left Mr Spahn facing questions about supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, which was partly developed by a German company and is the preferred choice for many people.
On Monday, he urged the public not to shun the Moderna vaccine as a booster, even if they initially received two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
"Moderna is a good, safe and very effective vaccine. Some vaccinating doctors say BioNTech is the Mercedes of vaccines, and Moderna is the Rolls-Royce,” he said.
Berlin is in talks with BioNTech over extra supplies but cannot yet give details, Mr Spahn said.
Germany reported another 30,463 cases of Covid-19 on Monday, with 62 deaths bringing the overall toll to almost 100,000.
The outgoing government agreed to rules with state leaders last week that will allow hospital capacity to be used as the benchmark for new restrictions.
If the burden on hospitals rises above a certain level, unvaccinated people will be barred from certain venues. At very high rates, even the vaccinated will need to provide a negative test result to enter.
Authorities in hard-hit regions such as Bavaria and Saxony have gone further by cancelling large events such as Christmas markets.
But Germany has so far stopped short of matching Austria’s restrictions, with authorities there reimposing a full lockdown and making vaccination compulsory from next year.
The spread of the virus means the new German government could face a tricky start in office.
Negotiators want to finalise their deal this week before presenting it to their parties for approval. A vote to confirm the Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats as chancellor is provisionally scheduled for the week of December 6.
The three parties published a 12-page outline of a deal in October, before entering line-by-line negotiations on a full coalition programme.
The provisional deal showed compromises on important issues such as tax and spending and how to reduce Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Leaks of potential ministerial appointments suggest negotiations are in their final stretch.
There is speculation that Free Democratic Party leader Christian Lindner could become finance minister, with the Greens taking on a wide-ranging economic brief.
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'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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Favourite Quote: Prophet Mohammad's quotes There is reward for kindness to every living thing and A good man treats women with honour
Favourite Hobby: Serving poor people
Favourite Book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite food: Fish and vegetables
Favourite place to visit: London
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Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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