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The death toll from coronavirus in Germany set a new record on Thursday, prompting the German federal government to introduce more austerity measures, writes the German newspaper Bild.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is already thinking of a “mega-lockdown” that, as the name suggests, would further tighten up on existing restrictions, due to a new, rapidly spreading variant of the coronavirus that was first detected in Britain.
According to the Bild, Merkel would suspend, among other things, local and long-distance public transport, although a decision has not yet been made and provincial leaders oppose further adjustment.
In a meeting with senior officials of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the chancellor urged taking very quick measures to curb the new strain of the virus, while requesting to advance a meeting with regional leaders originally scheduled for January 25, he writes Reuters.
In Germany, 25,000 of 164 new infections were identified on Thursday and 1,244 deaths were recorded, bringing the death toll to 43,000,881 since the outbreak.
According to the German federal health organization, the Robert Koch Institute, people do not take the epidemic seriously enough, which also contributes to the growing number of diseases. The institute’s director, Lothar Wieler, said epidemiological measures are far from being applied as effectively as during the first spring wave of the epidemic, so more people should work from home and current restrictions should be stricter.
Wieler also said that in 10 of Germany’s 16 provinces, hospitals are at capacity, with 85 percent of emergency department beds occupied by coronavirus patients. Although vaccination has been launched nationwide, so far only 1 percent of the population, 842,000 people, have received the vaccine. However, the head of the institute confidently said:
We will bring this epidemic under our control before the end of the year.
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