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From Germany The Health Minister said on Monday that while measures to contain the coronavirus had started to take effect, more needed to be done to keep it permanently under control.
“The numbers (of infections) seem to be decreasing, which is good, but we are still a long way from where we want to be,” Jens Spahn told ARD broadcaster.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany’s 16 state prime ministers will discuss what to do next Tuesday, Reuters reports.
New infections have been declining in recent days and the occupancy of intensive care beds by Covid-19 patients has decreased by 10-15%, according to Spahn.
However, state prime ministers are concerned about new variants that appear to be more contagious.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told public broadcaster RBB on Monday that he could imagine extending the current lockdown by two weeks until mid-February.
Stronger requirements are being discussed for companies to allow staff to work from home, the mandatory use of resistant FFP2 masks in certain areas, restrictions on public transport and the introduction of curfews.
The number of confirmed cases in Germany rose by 7,141 to 2,040,659, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Monday. That was more than 5,000 less than the previous week. The number of reported deaths increased by 214 to 46,633.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas fueled the discussion about privileges for people who had been vaccinated by saying they should be allowed to go to restaurants and cinemas earlier.
Other ministers have opposed these special rights, fearing they could cause social inequalities at a time when not everyone has the opportunity to get vaccinated.
Maas’s proposal was “out of the question” until a vaccine is proven to prevent people from also transmitting the virus, a Justice Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
