Dec. 17, 2020 7:09 am ET
BERLINâWhen Covid-19 swept across Europe this spring, Germany gained plaudits for its handling of the pandemic. Now authorities fear they are losing control of the virus.
Germany registered one of the lowest death rates from the disease in the world in the first half of the year. It had fewer infections than most of its large neighbors and its hospitals never ran out of emergency care beds, factors that led to the government enacting one of the mildest lockdowns in Europe.
Now, with infections in France and Italy lower than their mid-November peak, daily infections and deaths in Germany are breaking records every week, pushing the countryâs health system to its limits and forcing the government to move to a harder lockdown.