Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged Germans to get vaccinated against Covid-19 to help turn the tide against a fourth wave of cases that she said had become "dramatic" in parts of the country, Reuters reports.

"We are in a very serious situation. In some parts of the country you can only describe it as dramatic: overfilled intensive care units, severely ill people who have to be flown across Germany to get the care they need," she said.

"That is why I appeal to you again urgently: take the malicious virus seriously," Merkel said in the last of the more than 660 podcasts she has recorded in office before handing over to Social Democrat Olaf Scholz next week.

"Get yourself vaccinated. It doesn't matter if it is a first shot or a booster. Every vaccine helps."