[ad_1]
Wednesday 25 November 2020
Effort before Christmas
The federal and state governments are clearly tightening the reins of the crown
By Sebastian Huld
November restrictions imposed by the federal and state governments are taking effect. But they are not enough. Corona infection numbers are still too high. That is why the restrictions are being expanded and in some cases even tightened.
After a seven-hour videoconference between the Chancellor and the Prime Ministers of the federal states, the participants agreed on a Corona schedule for December 20. “We need another effort,” Angela Merkel said in the evening at a joint press conference with Berlin Mayor Michael Müller and Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder.
“Again we are reducing the number of contacts to five people from two households,” Merkel said of the contact restrictions that now apply until December 20. Children up to 14 years are not included. Merkel said the restriction will continue “to the extent possible” at least until early January. However, the Infection Protection Act only allows extensions every four weeks. Merkel spoke of a “toughening up so we can hold a festival with close family and friends on Christmas Day.” As expected, the gastronomic and cultural facilities will remain closed for the time being.
Moderation is urged
Gatherings of up to ten people over the age of 14 are allowed during Christmas. “We knew that people want clarity today,” Merkel said. “It is a special month that is ours. We have taken it into account in our decisions.” However, the mayor of Berlin, Müller, warned of restraint: “Making things possible does not mean that they have to be used,” he said. “A family celebration, even if that is possible, may not have to be organized as big as it could have been in recent years.”
The goal is still to reach an incidence of no more than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days, Merkel said. Contact chains can only be identified and interrupted below this value. “The exponential increase in the number of infected people is broken,” said the Chancellor. “That is only a partial success.” The November measures would have “saved us hundreds of thousands of infections, overloading the health system and, therefore, also many deaths.”
Guide values for loosening and tightening
At the summit it was also defined that the measures can be relaxed if the incidence is less than 50 weekly cases and 100,000 inhabitants. Merkel said there should be stricter measures “in particularly extreme infection situations, where there is an incidence of more than 200 cases per week and the infection process is diffuse.” Currently, the value is exceeded in Berlin and 62 other districts.
North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Armin Laschet cited the introduction of hybrid teaching in individual schools as an example of stricter measures in the event of extreme infection situations. Söder would have liked an even clearer measurement catalog. “In some places it is not clear enough to me,” Söder said, promoting among other things the possibility of hybrid and alternate lessons.
If possible, there is no ski vacation.
Merkel said she and the country’s bosses are asking employers “to use all the options for the home office” and, when possible, to take vacations from the company between years. For the retail sector, the number of allowed customers has been reduced to one for every 20 square meters from the 800 square meters of sales area. Smaller stores still allow one customer for every ten square meters.
The federal government wants to work with the other EU states not to offer ski holidays at the moment. “It will probably not be easy, but we will try,” Merkel said of the project that came about at the initiative of Bavaria. All citizens are asked to refrain from taking vacation trips.
Söder explained: “It’s not about banning friends and having fun skiing.” Ski holidays don’t match infection rate: “I can’t imagine having too many lifts and queuing for the gondola.” Holidays “shouldn’t be just another setback.”
Better mood than before
The three heads of government praised the constructive meeting after two weeks ago there were still many problems among the participants. “We also came to a good end in the difficult conditions,” Merkel said. The president of the Prime Minister’s Conference, Michael Müller, also spoke of a summit “without controversy and without arguments”. He said: “We were very unanimous in evaluating the starting position.”
In light of the significantly higher daily death toll related to Covid-19, Merkel said this reminds “in the saddest way that behind the statistics there are also sad fates.” Müller said: “Behind every number there is a destiny and a human tragedy.” That is sometimes forgotten. “We are now in Berlin in a situation where we use a quarter of Berlin’s intensive care beds for Covid patients,” Müller said. Every day there are “20 or 30 deaths” in the capital due to the pandemic.
“If we were to discuss this in relation to misfortunes and accidents, we would have different reports every day,” said Müller, a SPD politician. His colleague from CSU, Söder, did the math: if the numbers are kept at the current level, there would be 6,000 people “not experiencing Christmas.” Söder said: “Sometimes the indifference with which the subject is discussed is outrageous.”
Aid exceeding 30,000 million euros
Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz announced via Twitter immediately after the summit that with the extension of the partial blockade, the federal government had also promised an extension of aid for the companies involved: “The blockade of the crown will be will extend and also comprehensive financial aid. ” December is the most important month for gastronomic and cultural businesses, said Jens Spahn in the evening at ZDF. “That is why it is important that financial aid be extended, and that is why we agreed today.”
According to “Bild”, Chancellor Merkel is said to have warned in the change that the federal government could not pay these compensations throughout the winter. “In the end, it’s 30 billion euros for two months. A huge amount that no other country in Europe can afford,” Kretschmer said. “And that is why now we are all trying to make sure that the measures that we are taking now really work, because we cannot continue with everything in the months after.”
The grants are already available for November and can be requested from today. The subsidies are intended to largely make up for lost sales. Federal aid for November should have a volume of 15,000 million euros. Now the federal government will keep them within the framework of the requirements of the EU state aid law until December 20, as indicated in a draft resolution.
