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Daily corona infections have passed the ten thousand mark for days. Now Chancellor Angela Merkel apparently wants to enforce clear restrictions across the country.
With drastic contact restrictions, the federal government wants to control the growing number of corona infections before Christmas. Across the country, leisure facilities and restaurants will be closed, entertainment events will be banned, and public contacts and celebrations in squares and apartments will be restricted. This arises from a draft of the federal government’s draft resolution for the videoconference between Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the prime minister this Wednesday.
The measures should come into force in Germany from November 4 and apply until the end of the month. After two weeks, the Chancellor and the country’s leaders must evaluate the goals achieved and make the necessary adjustments. “Families and friends should be able to get together during the holiday season even in Corona conditions. This now requires a joint effort, like in the spring,” the newspaper says. Many planned measures are similar to the restrictions that already existed in spring during the first corona wave.
The measures provided in detail:
- Public, celebrations: Only members of your own household and of another household should be able to be together in public. Violations of these contact restrictions must be sanctioned by the regulatory authorities. Groups of people celebrating in public places, apartments and private facilities are unacceptable in view of the dire situation.
- Schools and kindergartens: These facilities must remain open. However, the federal states should introduce more protection measures.
- Retail trade: Retail stores must remain open as a whole, subject to hygiene, access control and queue avoidance requirements. However, it must be ensured that there is no more than one customer for every 25 square meters in stores.
- Entertainment events: Theaters, operas and concert halls should close. This also applies to trade shows, cinemas, amusement parks, arcades, casinos, and gambling shops. Brothels and other places of prostitution will also be closed.
- Sport: Hobbyist sports and leisure businesses will be closed at all public and private sports facilities, as well as swimming pools and amusement pools and fitness studios. Nothing concrete is said in the newspaper about the games of the major soccer leagues.
- Gastronomy and hotels: Bars, clubs, discos, pubs and similar establishments must be closed. Delivery and collection of food for consumption at home should be excluded. Offers of tourist accommodation in Germany should be prohibited. Offers should only be made for necessary purposes. Citizens are generally asked to refrain from private travel and family visits.
- Personal hygiene: Cosmetic studios, massage practices, or tattoo studios should close, but medically necessary treatments such as physical therapy should be possible. Beauty salons remain open, unlike in spring, but under existing hygiene requirements.
- Economy: Industry, crafts and medium-sized companies should be able to work safely, according to the draft. Employers must protect their employees from infection. Home work should be possible whenever possible.
- Help for companies: The federal government wants to extend aid and improve conditions for the culture and events industry, for example. In addition, the express loan of the state banking group KfW for companies with less than ten employees will be opened and adapted.
- Risk groups: For sick people, people in need of care, the elderly and the disabled, there should be rapid and priority corona rapid tests. Special protection in this area should not lead to complete social isolation.
- Control S: To comply with the measures, controls must be intensified in all areas. In addition, the federal and state governments should provide more information to citizens about the Crown’s measures “and increase clarity through the most uniform measures possible,” the newspaper says.
The goal of the federal and state governments is “to quickly disrupt the dynamics of infection so that far-reaching restrictions are not necessary during the holiday season.” “Families and friends should be able to get together during the Christmas season even in Corona conditions. This now requires a joint effort, just like in the spring.”
In two weeks, Merkel and the prime ministers want to consult again to assess the objectives achieved through the measures and make the necessary adjustments.
It was unclear whether and to what extent the federal states would support the measures. Thuringian Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) has already ruled out his government’s approval of such a decision. Other countries, on the other hand, had announced a tightening before the virtual meeting. Before Merkel’s consultations with the country’s leaders (1pm), the prime ministers want to meet for preliminary talks at 10.30am.
Reactions and voices
The leader of the FDP party and the parliamentary group, Christian Lindner, tweeted that the chancellor wanted “, among other things, to completely close the catering. I consider it unnecessary and therefore unconstitutional.” SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans told dpa: “We have to stop the dynamism of the virus and take all necessary measures with our combined forces.”
The president of the Federal Association of Midsize Companies, Mario Ohoven, told dpa: “The vast majority of midsize companies cannot cope with another blockade. For tens of thousands of companies this would be a fatal blow.” The Federal Government Commissioner for SMEs, Thomas Bareiß, told dpa: “Safety and health will have the highest priority in the coming weeks. However, with the next measures, we must also consider the effects on the affected companies.” .
The German Foundation for Patient Protection called for uniform standards throughout Germany. “For as many as possible to continue participating, the same restrictions are needed in the same situation,” said dpa board member Eugen Brysch.
“Reduce contacts”
“Focus Online” had already reported that night that Merkel was relying on the so-called “closure of the breakwater.” In an internal meeting at the CDU, the Chancellor also warned that the health system would end if the number of infections doubled four times, according to the participants, according to the “Bild-Zeitung”. That means: it’s better to decide on timely restrictions rather than wait until it’s too late. “If we do more now, we will gain air for the holidays,” Merkel is said to have said according to “Bild.”
Over the weekend Merkel made an urgent appeal to the population in her video podcast. “Reduce your contacts,” said the foreign minister there, resorting to an unusual measure. Read more about it here. The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina also supports this view. A statement from this and five other scientific institutions states that everyone should reduce their number of social contacts to at least a quarter.
“If the number of undetected virus carriers continues to increase significantly, more and more people are transmitting the virus unknowingly, driving the exponential growth in the number of infections,” he says. This must be urgently avoided so that the healthcare system is not overloaded.
The number of new corona infections in Germany has been in the five-digit range for several days. For the Christmas season, Merkel even predicted a number of infections of more than 20,000; this could be accomplished now in November.
