Germany could make Covid vaccination mandatory, says Merkel

Outgoing chancellor also announces lockdown measures for unvaccinated and says act of national solidarity' required

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Vaccination could become mandatory in Germany from February, Angela Merkel has said, as she announced what her successor as chancellor, Olaf Scholz, described as a lockdown of the unvaccinated".

As more EU countries confirmed cases of the Omicron variant, which the bloc's health agency said could make up more than half of all infections on the continent within months, Merkel described the situation as very serious".