More than half of all deaths in the entire pandemic were recorded in December calls air now growing louder for Germany to extend its current locked down.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to hold talks on Tuesday with leaders from Germany's 16 states to discuss that lock down, which is set to end on January 10th.

Leading doctors Union is urging for an extension, saying the health system is in desperate need of relief form or I am joined by Dr Uva Janzen, head of Germany's Critical Care in Emergency Medicine Association.

Dr.

Hansen's really appreciate your joining D.

W um a record number of deaths in December.

Just how dire is Germany's situation in terms of intensive care bets?

Yes, the burden is very, very high, and it is the result off very high infection rates all over November and December, and Theburbs on the intensive care unit is the result off this light locked on.

I'm very much convinced about this, so we were happy to see the hard lock down and December, and at the moment we are still working on the high tolls we got from the light lock down.

So 1st, 2nd, the Christmas Eve And, uh, today's between many people came together and we don't know what will happen in the middle of January.

As a result, off Christmas Eve and eso and the New Year's Eve S O, we will see what will happen.

So, yeah, we have toe wait to see what else might develop here.

One of the big stories during the first wave of the pandemic was Germany's success in dealing with the virus, and a significant factor was the country's intensive care capacity.

Well, what's gone wrong here, doctor?

Is it simply, as you refer to the unexpected spike in numbers?

Or is there something else?

No, I think it's quite easy to explain.

We have very high intensive care unit bad capacities.

We are champion leaders in I C.

U beds.

You see, with 33 per 100,000 capita Ice Cube, for instance, in the Netherlands, it is about 6 to 7 bets 100,000 inhabitants.

So it's not the number off Ice Cube.

It's It's the number off infection rates, which goes, uh, at this moment that will lead to this very, very civil burden off critically ill patients.

And, as you know, in Berlin, for instance, where the very high number of Kobe 19 patients, uh per issue as used as above 35% that's quite a lot in other areas of Germany.

That's between 10 and 20%.

So it's the result off the high infection rates.

And it's not that we don't have enough Ice Cube.

It's there is so much more I'd love to discuss with your doctor, but I'm afraid we're out of time.

Really appreciate your joining us Dr Over Jenson.

Thank you German Critical Care and Emergency Medical Medicine Association.

With me in the studio is D.

W's chief international editor Richard Walker.

Richard Welcome Mawr and MAWR.

German politicians and doctors are calling for an extension of this lock down.

Are those calls justified?

Yeah, well, I think an extension of some kind, at least, is looking very likely when politicians meet during the coming week.

Thio talk about whether to go beyond the 10th of January, which was the plan until now.

What's driving that is very much the health system you just mentioned there because he actually kind of infection numbers that we've been looking at over the last week, 10 days or so aren't at their peak levels.

But that is partly being driven by the fact that, of course, over the Christmas New Year break, there's not so much testing going on the health authorities, local health authorities not passing on so many numbers.

Um, but what is happening?

What you really do seeing is the health system getting close to the brink of what it's capable off delivering.

And there's one example here in Berlin.

If you look at the number of people in intensive care in Berlin Haas hospitals, 34% of Berlin's intensive care hospital beds are taken up by covert patients right now, Just one month ago, that was 24%.

So that's a very significant jump just during the course of this past month.

And, of course, what German politicians were really worried about is the German health care system hitting the kind of situation that we saw in Italy and Spain in the early part of last year, where in regions of those countries, the health system couldn't cope any longer, and then they had to start turning away some patients from the care that they needed.

That would be a scenario that no politician here, I think, wants to get the blame for so I think that is driving this kind of sense.

The politicians likely toe er on the side of caution when they next meet the cautionary tale that's tearing over all the thinking here.

Would it also this second lock down affect schools in kindergartens?

Well, there is debate around that.

So there's Ah lot of pressure for schools to reopen at least partially eso that Children can get back into education because, you know, there's a growing awareness of the psychological impact on Children off being cut off from from really good quality teaching in schools.

But there's also a growing awareness that schools do play a role in infection.

So, you know, one suggestion that has come up is, for example, to allow a younger Children back into school.

But for older Children, uh, to be still at home, the older Children being both more independent and capable of working from and doing their studies from home and also potentially pulling, opposing ah, higher risk if they did go into school so you can expect some debate around that this week, that's for sure.

Richard briefly Germany started its mass vaccination program on December 27th.

Of course, I think it's safe to say it hasn't gone very smoothly.

That's right.

I mean, there's also a huge debate opening up around this.

Um, you know, there was a lot of excitement just before Christmas when these vaccines started getting approved.

You know, there's the biotech vaccine that was also develops in Germany, getting approval.

The's huge vaccination centers being opened up in concert halls and airports around the country.

Um, but these don't have enough vaccines to actually get properly to work on.

But the head of that company, the CEO of that company by on Tech has actually come out and said, Why didn't European Union order mawr of our vaccine?

They could have done.

This kind of goes to the heart of this debate because the European Union has taken on a very central role within Europe of ordering vaccines.

Now they say, of course, they had Thio divide up their orders among different companies, uh, because they didn't know which one would come through first.

But they are facing accusations of not ordering enough.

I think one thing we have Thio emphasize that when discussing this is, of course, the U is in the fortunate position of being able to afford these vaccines, which, of course, many countries around the global South simply can't at this stage.

Exactly.

DWS Richard Walker.

Thanks as always, Richard Well, India is testing its nationwide covered 19 vaccine distribution systems as it prepares to roll out in inoculation program.

The trial includes the entry of data into an online platform that will monitor vaccine delivery.

The dry run comes a day after regulators approved the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use.

India hopes that inoculate 300 million people in the 1st 68 months of the year firm or I'm joined now by our correspondent in Delhi Now, Misha Janesville.

Um, no.

Misha India has reported over 10 million covert cases, second on Lee to the United States.

It says it hopes to inoculate some 300 million Indians by summer.

Is there any concern about whether the government can actually pull this off?

Well, this is definitely a massive logistical challenge.

Michael on the government has laid out off very detailed plan.

Already, it first plans to target 30 million people who they were, who are considered frontline workers.

This includes healthcare workers first and then sanitation workers and security personnel.

But the true challenge will emerge when we then move to the other 2 70 million people that India hopes to vaccinate by the summer, which includes everybody about the age of 50 as well as those below the age of 50 who have for mobility's now.

This is not data that is currently reported in an organized manner across healthcare data bases in the country.

So now the priority lists are being built across the country.

People will have the option to enroll on the digital platform, called the Coven app.

They would be given a pre designated spot to show up and get their pre booked vaccine.

But of course, tracking this data will be a crucial step, and this and each vaccine centers.

So far, it seems to only carry out 100 vaccinations per day, which means that thousands of south centers will be needed across the country working efficiently to hit this target.

Mhm.

India's health care budget is on Lee a small proportion of its GDP.

Yet millions of people have to be reached, including some in remote and rural areas.

As you know, what are the challenges here?

Well, Michael, India and the Indian authorities hopes to draw on experiences that has had in the past, even though nothing off this scale has been carried out.

India has a robust universal immunization program, which vaccinates, which gives out hundreds of millions of doses, all vaccinations to young mothers as well as infants.

And this has been jumped off significantly over the last decade, which has improved India's cold chain infrastructure, which is basically how vaccine stays cold from the from the delivery point till actual inoculation with the patient.

In addition and gets also planning to rely on its vast election experience, where millions go to the world in a single day.

It's a similar model in a fashion, but of course there are significant challenges.

The coaching in storage I mentioned is useful for the vaccine, like the Oxford vaccine, which requires temperatures of between two and eight degrees.

But when we look at something like the fights, the vaccine, which requires temperatures of minus 70 degrees This is to signal this is too massive a challenge in a country like India, and there will be much more difficult to pull off.

There's also concerns around data management making sure that people come back for the second doors, following up on observations with people.

Look at the vaccinations and, of course, preventing this information.

D W correspondent Misha Jaiswal for us there in Delhi really appreciate it now.

Misha, thank you.

Yeah, let's take a look Now, at some other international stories, Japan is considering declaring a new cove in 19 emergency after a record surge in cases, the governors of Tokyo and three nearby prefectures urge the national government to call a state of emergency to stem the spread of the virus.

The government says it must first consult with health experts.

French police have been recording the details of revelers leaving on illegal New Year's Eve party in the western region of Brittany.

Some 2.5 1000 people from France and abroad attended the rave.