"We will get even higher case numbers," said Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD). According to his ministry, "considerable effects on the health system in the medium term" can be expected due to more intensive care patients. In the view of the Greens' health expert Janosch Dahmen, the federal and state governments should start preparing additional measures now.

"I believe that we will probably reach the peak of the wave in mid-February," Lauterbach said on the programme "RTL Direkt" on Tuesday evening. According to Wednesday's data, the health offices transmitted 112,323 new cases to the Robert Koch Institute in 24 hours. There were 239 deaths. The seven-day incidence also reached a high of 584.4 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week. The number of unreported cases is likely to be around a factor of two for the incidence, Lauterbach said.

So far, the wave triggered by the virus variant Omikron has not been reflected in the intensive care units. According to the medical association Divi, the number of Corona patients there has dropped from about 5000 to 2664 since the first half of December. At the moment, comparatively few elderly people, who are particularly susceptible to severe courses, are becoming infected.

"Omicron is milder, but not mild," MP Dahmen told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. "We must not be deceived by the current situation in the hospitals. Only in a fortnight at the earliest will the Omikron wall reach the hospitals." We know from other countries that the omicron wave will reach the hospitals later than other previous waves.

Dahmen demanded: "In indoor areas where no FFP2 mask can be worn, the extension of the 2G-plus rule would make sense." Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the state premiers plan to discuss the Corona situation again on Monday. Most recently, they had decided that in principle vaccinated and convalescent persons (2G) must also be tested or triple vaccinated (2G plus) when accessing the catering industry.

For unvaccinated people who have recovered, the recent shortening of the period of validity of the proof of recovery can become a problem. According to the Ministry of Health, older certificates are not protected. Since Saturday, the convalescent status is only valid for a period between 28 and 90 days after a positive PCR test. According to the RKI, the reason for this is that unvaccinated people with omicron have less and shorter protection against re-infection after an infection. Proofs from the beginning of October, for example, have thus now expired.

The health ministers of the Länder had asked the Federal Ministry to work out transitional arrangements for those affected - for example, because of booked travel or access to events.

Lauterbach advocated a quick entry into force of a general vaccination obligation. Compulsory vaccination, he said, must come quickly. "If we want to make a motion that still works, then that's a motion that puts compulsory vaccination into effect - what do I know - in April or around April, maybe in May." By the time unvaccinated people would then have three vaccinations, it would be September or October. The aim is to avert another Corona wave in autumn, which virologists expect to happen without sufficient overall immunisation.

At present, the number of daily Corona vaccinations is declining again. It stood at 589,000 vaccine doses administered on Tuesday - down from 1.2 million on the Tuesday before Christmas. According to the RKI, at least 72.9 per cent of the population (60.5 million) have basic immunisation, which means they usually have two vaccine doses.

The term has changed here; previously, the RKI had spoken of "full vaccination protection". However, since booster vaccination is considered necessary for better vaccination protection, Lauterbach had recently also assumed three doses for complete vaccination. According to a spokesperson, however, the basic immunisation should still be sufficient for 2G or 3G compliance. An additional booster vaccination has been given to 48.3 percent of the population (40.1 million).

Just under one in four - 20.6 million people - have not yet been vaccinated. Of these, no vaccine is yet available for the 4.0 million children under five.

In view of the increasing scarcity of PCR tests, employees in sensitive health facilities are to be given priority in the laboratory evaluation as announced. A draft regulation of the Ministry of Health states that "priority should be given to the analysis of samples from employees who have contact with particularly vulnerable groups of people".

The government is concerned that "more waves" may come, as government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said. Lauterbach said that "the probability that we will not have a new variant in autumn" is very low. We are already seeing new variants all the time, but they will not prevail. The danger, he said, was that there would be a "recombined variant" with the danger of the Delta variant and the transferability of Omikron.

(Original text: Basil Wegener, Sascha Meyer and Valentin Frimmer, dpa; Translation: Mareike Graepel)