Germany's health minister on Saturday took to Twitter to appeal for more people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. 

"65.7% (54.65 million) of all German citizens have been vaccinated at least once, 61.2% (50.9 million) have complete vaccine protection," Jens Spahn wrote. "That is good — but we need at least 5 million more vaccinations for a safe autumn and winter." 

On Saturday, Germany's RKI disease control agency reported 10,835 cases over 24 hours, up from 10,303 a week earlier.

Germany's seven-day incidence rate has been steadily rising in recent weeks, reaching 80.7 cases per 100,000 people per week in the figures published early on Saturday. Between early June and early August it was consistently below 25.

"The vaccination rate is still too low to prevent an overburdening of the health system," Spahn told the Hannoversche Zeitung newspaper. He said that of COVID patients currently in German intensive care beds, 90% were not vaccinated.

A German society for intensive and emergency medical care issued a similar appeal in another newspaper, telling the Augsburger Allgemeine that the vaccination rate needed to be boosted "considerably by October." 

Scholz criticized over 'laboratory rabbits' appeal

Meanwhile, an appeal for more vaccinations from the SPD's chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz threatened to turn into a political football on Saturday, earning him a sharp rebuke from his Christian Democrat rival Armin Laschet and from Health Minister Spahn, also a member of Angela Merkel's CDU. 

Scholz, whose SPD has taken a shock lead in opinion polls at the CDU's expense weeks ahead of the vote, was speaking in an interview on local radio in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Friday when he tried to encourage the non-vaccinated to step forward. 

"Fifty million [Germans] have now been vaccinated twice," Scholz said. "We were all the laboratory rabbits for those people who have so far waited. Therefore, as one of these 50 million, I say: It went fine, please join in!" 

Alluding to laboratory animal tests in the context of vaccination, even euphemistically, caught the attention of leading conservatives. 

"People in this country are not laboratory rabbits," CDU candidate Armin Laschet told party colleagues at an event in Potsdam on Saturday, urging them to avoid such language.

Health Minister Spahn also shared a report linking to the comments. 

"Now this really is nonsense," Spahn said. "The vaccine is approved, safe, and effective. A choice of words like this is an open door for those seeking to undermine trust with half-truths. Vaccination protects and has already saved thousands of lives."

msh/dj (AFP, dpa, Reuters)