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The strict restrictions that will take effect from Monday, November 2 until the end of the month, would limit outdoor contact to people from two households. Bars, cafes and restaurants are due to close, although take-out and delivery services may continue.
An informational poster on the use of face masks and social distancing measures, as well as the prohibition of alcoholic beverages during certain hours during the new coronavirus pandemic, is seen in the southern German city of Nuremberg, on October 28. 2020. Image: AFP
BERLIN – Germany on Wednesday ordered a new round of closures for the cultural and leisure sectors, as well as food and beverages, in a bid to halt an increase in new coronavirus infections.
The tough restrictions that will take effect from Monday, November 2 until the end of the month, would limit outdoor contact to people from two households.
Schools, nurseries and shops will remain open, but hotel stays will only be allowed for “necessary and expressly non-tourist purposes.”
Bars, cafes and restaurants are due to close, although take-out and delivery services may continue.
Professional sports, including Bundesliga football, have also been turned away behind closed doors.
Theaters, operas and cinemas will also have to scrap their shows during what is traditionally their busiest season.
Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged that the measures are “strict and arduous” but called for a “national effort.”
At the current rate of new infections, “we will reach the limits of the health system,” he warned.
The number of new cases doubled today compared to last week, while the number of people in intensive care also doubled in the past 10 days, he noted.
“The curve must be flattened again … so that contact tracing can be done again,” he said, adding that in three out of four cases today, authorities can no longer determine where the transmission occurred.
NEW DAILY RECORD
Europe’s largest economy coped with the first wave of coronavirus relatively well at the beginning of the year, but the numbers have risen rapidly in recent weeks, on par with the rest of the continent.
The daily new case count now regularly crosses the 10,000 mark and hit a new 24-hour record of 14,964 on Wednesday, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for Disease Control.
That is still well below the numbers seen in neighboring France, where daily cases have exceeded 50,000, or Belgium, where hospitals are reaching capacity.
But the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care in Germany has also risen, from just under 400 in early October to 1,570 on Wednesday.
Health Minister Jens Spahn, who works from home after testing positive for the virus, said urgent action is required.
“If we wait until the intensive care beds are full, then it will be too late,” he told regional broadcaster Suedwestrundfunk.
‘LET’S GO TO BANKRUPT’
With a new shutdown to once again inflict the hardest blow on sectors that suffered the most painful blow in the spring, Merkel’s government will offer 10 billion euros ($ 12 billion) in aid.
The aid destined not only to companies and associations, but also to thousands of self-employed will reimburse up to 75% of the comparable income of a year ago.
But employees and bosses from the worst-hit industries marched Wednesday to protest the new restrictions, while the wholesale and trade federation warned that closing restaurants would be the death sentence for many small businesses.
Pascal Reichsten, 23, who works as a janitor, said he had been out of work for seven months.
“I do this job to pay my school fees. But I can’t pay it anymore because I don’t have any more work,” he said at the Berlin protest.
Meanwhile, Cordula Weidenbach, 45, whose company rents furniture for exhibitions, told AFP that the company’s revenues have almost completely collapsed.
“If it continues like this, we will be ruined.”
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