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Chancellor Merkel and the federal states have decided to toughen the crown measures as of Wednesday. The trade will be closed until January 10.
In view of the persistently high number of corona infections, Germany faces a severe lockdown long before Christmas. The federal and state governments made the decision on Sunday morning to massively increase corona measures starting Wednesday, December 16. The meeting between the federal government and the states was called on short notice because previous, less stringent measures had not brought about the expected reversal of the trend in the number of infections.
Retail, with the exception of stores for daily necessities, will close from December 16 to January 10. This stems from a draft that the Federal Chancellery had sent to the federal states prior to the meeting. The draft available to the German Press Agency from various sources is dated December 13, 7.46 am According to information from the dpa, the draft is coordinated with individual states after consultations in the federal-state group on Saturday.
For the same period, the draft recommends significant contact restrictions in schools and kindergartens. “During this time, children should be cared for at home whenever possible. Therefore, schools are generally closed during this period or compulsory attendance is suspended.” The same procedure should be used in nurseries. Based on these ideas, additional opportunities should be created for parents to take paid leave to care for their children during the mentioned period.
For the Christmas days of December 24-26, the document suggests that federal states may allow “reunions with 5 people plus children up to 14 years of age in the immediate family” as an exception to the applicable contact restrictions. According to the document, the closest family circle includes both spouses and other civil partners, as well as direct relatives such as siblings, siblings, and their respective household members, even if this means more than two households.
High on friday
In one day, German health authorities sent 20,200 new corona infections to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). That comes from the Sunday morning numbers. The peak was reached on Friday with 29,875 reported cases. The number of cases registered is usually lower on Sundays, in part because fewer tests are conducted on weekends. Last Sunday the figure was 17,767.
Health authorities also reported 321 new deaths in one day. The previous high of 598 deaths was also reached on Friday. The number of daily deaths has tended to rise recently, which was expected after the sharp increase in new infections. The total number of people who died with or with a proven Sars-CoV-2 infection increased to 21,787.
In total, the Robert Koch Institute has counted 1,320,716 infections detected with Sars-CoV-2 in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic (until December 13, 00:00). Around 967,900 people are estimated to have recovered.
According to RKI’s management report on Friday, the national seven-day R value was 1.11 (previous day: 1.03). This means that, in theory, 100 infected people infect 111 more people. The value represents the onset of the infection eight to 16 days ago. If it is below 1 for a long time, the infection rate decreases.
(WHAT)
