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BERLIN – Stores selling non-essential items, beauty salons and schools in Germany will close from Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said, to halt an “exponential growth” of new coronavirus infections in Europe’s largest economy.
The partial lockdown will apply until January 10, and companies are urged to allow employees to work from home or offer extended company vacations, under new measures Merkel agreed with regional leaders from all 16 states. from Germany on Sunday.
The sale of alcohol would be banned in public places, essentially outlawing the mulled wine stall business, which has become popular in the days leading up to Christmas.
“The situation in the crown is out of control,” Bavarian state prime minister Markus Soeder said, welcoming the stricter restrictions he promised to implement in his state.
In November, Germany closed cultural and leisure facilities and banned indoor dining in restaurants.
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The measures had helped stem the rapid growth of infections after the fall school holidays, but the numbers had stalled at a high rate.
However, over the past week, the country’s disease control agency reported that the trend towards infections has taken a worrying turn.
“With the increased mobility and the additional contacts thus linked in the pre-Christmas period, Germany is now in an exponential growth of infection figures,” said the policy document agreed by regional leaders and Merkel. .
Therefore, it was “our task to avoid an overload of our health systems and therefore there is an urgent need to take action,” said the chancellor.
