The head of the Robert Koch Institute has said he expects Omicron to become the dominant strain of coronavirus in Germany within as little as three weeks, with potentially serious consequences for hospitals. 

Omicron infections doubling every three days in Germany

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Lothar Wieler said that Omicron would undoubtedly take over from Delta as the dominant variant in Germany. Although COVID cases have been declining over the past few weeks, Wieler said that they would start rising again soon, in a wave of infections “with a dynamic unlike anything we’ve seen yet” and the potential to overwhelm the healthcare system. 

So far, around 540 cases of Omicron have been confirmed in Germany, and the RKI has details of a further 1.848 suspected cases - but, as Wieler noted, most of this data is one to two weeks old. “The trend is crystal clear,” he stressed. “With numbers doubling roughly every three days, the new variant could account for the majority of all infection cases in our country in the next one, two, three weeks at the latest.” 

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach added that there are now so many Omicron cases in Germany that “we have to assume that the Omicron wave can no longer be prevented.” 

Booster shots and contact restrictions to ease Omicron wave

However, Lauterbach did say that Germany had the tools to get the situation under control - namely booster shots and the post-Christmas contact restrictions ordered by the federal and state governments this week. 

The health minister explained that, while the booster campaign would not stop the wave of Omicron infections, it did have the power to stop people from getting seriously ill. Current studies show that booster shots help reduce the risk of symptomatic infections by somewhere between 70 and 80 percent, Lauterbach said. 

Wieler took the opportunity to once again ask people to reduce their contacts over the holidays, stating, “The Christmas celebration shouldn’t be the spark that fuels the Omicron flame. I urge you - spend Christmas with the smallest circle of family.” 

Earlier this week, the RKI had called for immediate far-reaching coronavirus measures in Germany, including imposing contact restrictions, speeding up vaccinations, and reducing travel - a call that the federal and state governments largely chose to ignore.