Germany locks down the unvaccinated as leaders plan to make shots mandatory

Germany announced a nationwide lockdown on Thursday for those citizens who remain unvaccinated as the country’s leaders backed plans for mandatory vaccinations in the coming months.

Unvaccinated people will be banned from accessing all but the most essential businesses, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, to curb the spread of coronavirus, outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel and her successor, Olaf Scholz, announced Thursday, following crisis talks with regional leaders. Those who have recently recovered from COVID-19 are not covered by the ban.

Under the new restrictions, unvaccinated people can only meet two people from another household. The press briefing is also Merkel’s last before she leaves office.

“We have understood that the situation is very serious and that we want to take further measures in addition to those already taken,” Merkel told reporters at Thursday’s news conference. “The fourth wave must be broken and this has not yet been achieved,” she added.

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was time to “potentially think about mandatory vaccination” within the bloc, as it faces the double onslaught of a fourth coronavirus wave and concerns over the Omicron variant discovered by South African health officials last week.

“Two or three years ago, I would never have thought to witness what we see right now, that we have this horrible pandemic, we have the vaccines, the life-saving vaccines, but they are not being used adequately everywhere,” von der Leyen told a press briefing Wednesday.

“How we can encourage and potentially think about mandatory vaccination within the European Union, this needs discussion. This needs a common approach but it is a discussion that I think has to be led,” she added.