3,186 Covid-19 patients are being treated in intensive care facilities - the highest number of patients in ICUs since the pandemic began, the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) said Thursday.
Earlier this week, DIVI reported that cases had exceeded the levels seen during the initial coronavirus wave, confirming that German hospitals are filling up at high speed.
The data also shows that 56% of patients in ICUs currently need ventilation.
When taking into account patients admitted to ICUs in Germany for other diseases, around 70% of intensive-care capacity facilities in the country are currently occupied.
Despite this, 6,600 ICU beds are still vacant and Germany has a reserve of 12,300 beds it can deploy, including field hospital beds at the Berlin convention center.
But health minister Jens Spahn on Thursday warned that ICUs could be overwhelmed if daily infection rates continue to rise at the current level.
The head of Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) warned earlier on Thursday that the overall number of infections remains “very high” and that he expects hospitals to reach capacity.