A sign in front of a COVID-19 test station in Berlin.  © Stefanie Loos / AFP

Berlin, November 22 (RHC)-- German Health Minister Jens Spahn has said that everyone will be immunized or succumb to the coronavirus in the coming months as he urged the public to get the shot.

“Probably by the end of this winter, as is sometimes cynically said, pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, cured or dead,” Spahn said on Monday.  The minister once again urged everyone to get vaccinated, but remained skeptical about making the shots compulsory. The minister said that herd immunity will be achieved, and “no compulsory vaccination will break this wave” of infections. 

Spahn made his comments as some leading politicians, including those from the outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), have been calling for a vaccine mandate for all citizens amid the rise in Covid-19 infections.

Bavaria’s Minister-President Markus Soeder said on Friday the seven-day infection-incidence rate has “shot through the roof” among the unvaccinated.  “I believe that in the end, we will not get around a general vaccination obligation,” he said.

Similar rhetoric was recently used by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Speaking to Kossuth radio on Friday, he lashed out at anti-vaxxers, branding them a threat and saying they “will realize that they will either get vaccinated or die.”