Covid-19 pandemic is over, German medical expert says

The Covid-19 pandemic can be considered over as it is now an endemic disease, German virologist Christian Drosten said in comments to the Tagesspiegel newspaper published on Monday.

"We are experiencing the first endemic wave with Sars-CoV-2 this winter; in my estimation the pandemic is over," said the head of virology at Berlin's Charité University Hospital.

After this winter, the immunity in the population would be so broad and resilient that the virus stood little chance in the summer, he said.

Responding to Drosten's remarks, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann called for all restrictive measures to be allowed to expire.

Noting that Drosten was one of the most cautious scientists during the pandemic, Buschmann tweeted: "We are in the endemic situation. As a political consequence, we should terminate the last coronavirus protective measures."

In his comments to the Tagesspiegel, Drosten pointed to another mutation jump as the only limitation. "But I don't expect that either at the moment," he added.

Intensive care physician Christian Karagiannidis, who is also a member of the Germany's Covid-19 expert council, said the pandemic would likely be over after the winter.

"I expect that the pandemic will now increasingly run its course," Karagiannidis said an interview with the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).

While one or two small Covid-19 waves were still likely, he said the population's immunity was solid and there were significantly fewer Covid-19 patients in intensive care units.

Meanwhile, a wave of other respiratory infections in Germany had reached a turning point, Karagiannidis said.

"We currently know that the very strong wave of infections has just reached its peak and the number of infections will hopefully decrease in the coming days," Karagiannidis told RND.

There were already signs of a slight decline in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections and other infectious diseases, he noted.

Nevertheless, Karagiannidis warned of possible bottlenecks in some regional hospitals on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. For this reason, he urged people to hold back on New Year's Eve fireworks, due to the risk of injury.