Germany's acting Health Minister Jens Spahn has stressed the need for restrictions on unvaccinated people ahead of Thursday's round of talks on coronavirus measures between the central and 16 state governments.
"What is actually important is a lockdown, so to speak, for the unvaccinated," he told the German broadcaster ZDF.
He said that the large number of unvaccinated people "pose a challenge to the health system."
"If you look at the intensive care units, if you look at the dynamics of infections, it's with this too large number of unvaccinated."
In addition, the minister talked of access only for vaccinated and recovered people "consistently in almost all areas of life."
He said he also wanted to see the cancellation or significant reduction of major events, as well as closures of bars, clubs and discos.
"We can see that in the regions in Germany - in Saxony, in Bavaria - where very far-reaching measures have been taken, the situation seems to be stabilizing and improving," Spahn said. "The measures are working."
But he warned that "massive contact restrictions" were still needed.
"Even if there were no more infections in Germany from tomorrow, we will still probably see over 6,000 Covid-19 intensive care patients in Germany in the next few days."
The telephone conference, which is scheduled to start at 11 am (1000 GMT), will include acting Chancellor Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrat expected to succeed her later this month.
Officials are already drawing up plans to make vaccination mandatory for health and care workers.
The leaders could also tighten restrictions further to limit unvaccinated people from more areas of public life - such as shops - and they could set stricter limits on crowds for major events like football games.
Under Germany's federal division of powers, some of the states have already implemented such rules, but meetings between the premiers and the central government have been held regularly throughout the pandemic in a bid to coordinate the response.
