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Despite the improvement in the epidemiological situation, restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Germany will be extended to prevent a third wave of infection, the federal government agreed with provincial governments on Monday.
The restrictions, which expire in mid-February, will run until March 7 for now and will only be relaxed if it falls below 35 and the number of new infections per 100,000 registered inhabitants in the previous seven days remains at that level. for at least three days. It currently stands at 68 and a month ago it was over 130. After a discussion with provincial heads of government, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the disciplined behavior of citizens had slowed the second wave, but that new variants of the much more infectious virus had started to spread, especially the B.1.1 mutation. 7, first identified in Great Britain. Therefore, according to the chancellor, it is vital to reduce the number of new cases as much as possible in the coming weeks, because local health offices dealing with the discovery and interruption of infection chains can only regain control of the disease. spread of the virus. with a reduced number of cases.
According to Angela Merkel, the mutations “will take over, the old virus will disappear and we will live with a new virus.”This development is subject to enormous uncertainty, because the nature of the “new virus”, the new versions of SARS-Cov-2 that are becoming dominant, is still unknown, and it is very easy to see exponential and explosive growth in the new ones. infections again if the epidemic is out of control.
However, in a joint meeting of the Conference of Prime Ministers (MPK), the conciliatory body of the provincial heads of government responsible for epidemiological control, and the federal government, it was agreed that hairdressers could reopen on March 1 with strict precautions hygiene. It was also indicated that the relaunch of the institutional system of public education and nurseries will be decided at the discretion of the competent provincial governments in accordance with the norms of the federal system.
The second wave of the epidemic that developed last fall is receding in Germany. According to a report from the Robert Koch Public Health Institute (RKI) on Wednesday, 8,072 infections have been tested nationwide in the past 24 hours. This is a decrease from 9705 a week earlier. Along with recently reported infections, SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in 2,299,996 people. In relation to the disease caused by the virus (Covid-19), 813 deaths were recorded, which is also a decrease compared to the 975 of the previous week, and the number of victims of the epidemic amounted to 62,969.
The nationwide shutdown was introduced on December 16. Only stores that sell basic goods are open, day care centers and public education are available, and only those whose work at home cannot be reached can go to work. (MTI)
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