A second and third wave of coronavirus deaths is now very likely, according to German researchers

• A second and even third wave of the coronavirus pandemic is now likely, according to one of Germany's leading disease experts.
• 'We know with great certainty that there will be a second wave. The majority of scientists are sure of this,' said Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute.
• The German national lockdown is fraying at the seams as individual states move to reopen restaurants, beer gardens, and hotels later this summer.
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The world should brace itself for a second and even third wave of the coronavirus pandemic before sufficient immunity to the virus is achieved in the population, according to German researchers.

Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute, a public health institute in Germany, said on Tuesday that a second wave of infections will come "with great certainty," adding that most experts shared his view.

"This is a pandemic, and in a pandemic this virus will remain on our list of medical concerns until 60 to 70 per cent of the population have been infected," he said, according to the Times of London newspaper.

"Therefore we know with great certainty that there will be a second wave. The majority of scientists are sure of this. One also assumes there will be a third wave."

But Wieler also said it was "very good news" that Germany, whose government has been praised for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, had seen daily infections drop to between 700 and 1,600 a day.

The number of new cases in Germany rose above 164,000 on Tuesday, while the death toll rose to above 6,800 according to a German Press Agency tally.

The country's R value — which must stay below one in order to an exponential rise in the number of infections —is currently at 0.71.

German states have moved to begin reopening restaurants, beer gardens, and hotels later this summer, just days after Angela Merkel, the chancellor, said some states had started easing lockdown restrictions "too briskly."

She warned last week, as individual states moved to ease restrictions, that it "remains absolutely important that we stay disciplined."

But eight of Germany's 16 states have introduced plans to reopen businesses swiftly, the Times reported, with one state, Saxony, even planning to allow open-air demonstrations of up to 50 people.

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