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North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Armin Laschet insisted on Friday that the deal should be closed “as soon as possible” before January 10. Hamster purchases and crowded shops in the previous period should be excluded, he said in Düsseldorf. The attendance requirement for schools will end on Monday for now. According to Laschet, the school holidays will be extended by two days.
Schleswig-Holstein Prime Minister Daniel Günther announced on Friday a tightening of contact restrictions in the Kiel state parliament. Instead of a maximum of ten people, a maximum of five people from two households should be able to meet. This also applies to Christmas, with the exception of only the closest family. There will be no face-to-face classes at the Schleswig-Holstein schools from Monday. It is recommended that students in the lower grades stay home.
On Thursday some prime ministers spoke out in favor of further toughening. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) called for retail to be closed for the fourth time in Advent. His Saarland counterpart Tobias Hans (CDU) said he was also in favor of a strict lockdown. Berlin’s administrative district is also planning significant restrictions for retailers and schools to contain the corona pandemic. The ruling mayor Michael Müller (SPD) announced it on Thursday in the Berlin House of Representatives.
Meanwhile, the federal government and the Prime Minister are proceeding with preparations for stricter measures at the national level at high speed. According to information from Süddeutsche Zeitung Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder and Berlin Mayor Müller are in close contact with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz. According to the state government of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the high-level discussion should take place on Sunday.
The strict restrictions envisaged will be accompanied by more financial aid. According to this, all sectors that are affected, such as retail stores that would have to close, should receive financial support. As further announced in Berlin, the possibility of financially supporting the Free State of Saxony is also being considered. Saxony has already imposed a hard shutdown at the national level.
Seehofer and Baerbock call for closure before Christmas
It’s not just several prime ministers who are calling for a quick shutdown. Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) also believes that it is wrong to wait until after Christmas with stricter crown measures. In an interview with the Spiegel called for an immediate closure on Friday. This is the “only possibility to regain control of the situation,” said the CSU politician. You will still have to deal with a large number of infections for months if you have to wait until the holidays with the strictest measures. It bothered him that Germany had lost the advantage it had fought for in the spring during the pandemic. Inadequate measures and not lack of discipline on the part of citizens are the main responsible for the current contagion process.
Green leader Annalena Baerbock is also calling for a much tougher lockout starting next week. She told the German Press Agency on Friday: “We should start a clear Christmas holiday now. We have to break the dynamics of the infection process.” Stores other than for daily necessities should be closed, schools should switch to distance education from the seventh grade, said the green politician.
Maximum values for new infections and deaths
The number of new corona infections and deaths reported to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in one day has reached a high level. Health authorities transmitted 29,875 new infections in 24 hours, according to figures from Friday morning. That’s more than 6,000 more than the day before, when a peak of 23,679 cases was also reached. Furthermore, the RKI reported 598 new deaths on Friday, the second highest in a short time. The highest daily death toll of 590 was reached on Wednesday.
The trend in the number of daily deaths had recently increased, 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 20,970.
In total, the RKI has counted 1,272,078 infections detected with Sars-CoV-2 in Germany since the start of the pandemic (until December 10, 00:00). It is estimated that around 942,100 people have recovered.
According to RKI’s management report on Thursday, the national seven-day R-value was 1.03 (previous day: 0.99). This means that, in theory, 100 infected people infect 103 more people. The value has fluctuated around 1.0 for a few weeks and shows the infection process eight to 16 days ago. If it is below 1.0 for a long time, the infection process subsides.
Baden-Württemberg will be blocked after Christmas
Baden-Württemberg wants to continue shutting down public life in the state due to the uncontrolled rise in corona infections. For the post-Christmas period until at least January 10 at the shutdown, Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) announced the shutdown on Friday. However, if a solution cannot be found at the national level, a joint solution will be sought with the neighboring states of Baden-Württemberg if necessary, Kretschmann said.
The green-black state government had already negotiated with municipal umbrella organizations on Thursday on stricter measures. Among other things, a night curfew and daytime exit restrictions are expected early next week, according to the German Press Agency. Anyone leaving home during the day should only do so for a valid reason, such as for work reasons.
The cabinet plans to announce the new editions at a press conference this Friday at 12 noon. With this, Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann anticipates a possible agreement with the heads of state governments and the chancellor.
RKI boss Wieler on the crown situation: “That’s worrisome”
The current increase in the number of infections is “worrisome,” RKI chief Lothar Wieler told a news conference. “The infection process can be reversed quickly. The number of cases can rapidly increase exponentially again. A few additional cases are sufficient for this.” The reduction in contacts due to current restrictions is simply not enough so far. Current measures have resulted in a contact reduction of around 40 percent. But 60 percent is necessary. “If that doesn’t work, then I don’t see any other option,” Wieler said when asked about a strict lockdown.
In some regions, preventing new infections appears to be better than others, Wieler said. The situation is particularly worrying in the eastern German states of Saxony and Thuringia, but also in Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, said Ute Rexroth, head of the RKI situation center.
Unlike summer, nowadays there are no longer mainly individual large shoots, but rather a “fuzzy occurrence”. According to the RKI, there are about twice as many outbreaks in nursing homes and nursing homes compared to spring. That is why it is important to limit the virus by reducing person-to-person contact.
Wieler said antibody studies suggested that around one in seven people at some hotspots had already been infected with the virus. But when it comes to the general population, it is different. “We have to assume that, on average, only a small percentage of the population is infected.” About 1.5 percent have tested positive. Even with an undeclared figure, the value is certainly in the single digit range.
