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New cases of coronavirus infections in Germany have soared to 6,638 in the last 24 hours, official data showed today, reaching a daily level not seen since the start of the pandemic.
The alarming rise in the numbers came just hours after Chancellor Angela Merkel met with the leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states to agree to tougher restrictions designed to slow the spread of the contagion.
The highest number of new cases previously recorded in one day was 6,294, on March 28, according to figures from the Robert Koch Institute’s disease control center.
Chancellor Angela Merkel announced last night new limits for people gathering at events, as well as the mandatory use of masks in crowded places.
Under the new measures, if an area records more than 35 new infections per 100,000 people over seven days, masks will be mandatory wherever people have close contact.
“We can see that … infection rates are increasing and that we have a very high infection rate in some regions,” Merkel said.
“Therefore, we must avoid an uncontrolled or exponential increase.”
The number of people authorized to meet will also be limited to 25 in public spaces and 15 in private spaces.
Once the threshold of 50 new infections per 100,000 is exceeded, even stricter restrictions will apply.
These include limiting private gatherings to 10 people or two households, and closing restaurants after 11 p.m.
Even more restrictions could be imposed if the upward trajectory of new infections continues, Merkel warned.
“We will see if what we have done today is enough,” he said after yesterday’s decisions.
Hong Kong and Singapore announce plans for a travel bubble
Hong Kong and Singapore will establish a travel bubble, the two cities announced, as they moved to reestablish overseas travel links and remove the quarantine hurdle for visiting foreigners.
Hong Kong Commerce Secretary Edward Yau and Singapore Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said travelers under the scheme would need to get negative Covid-19 test results and travel on special flights.
More details, including the release date, will be developed in the coming weeks, they said.
“It is a safe, careful but significant step forward in reviving air travel and providing a model for future collaboration with other parts of the world,” said Ong from Singapore.
For Hong Kong, which has banned non-residents since March, the Singapore deal is the first resumption of travel ties with another city.
Travelers from mainland China and neighboring Macau still face 14 days in quarantine.
Singapore has already announced pacts on essential official and business travel from China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and unilaterally opened to general visitors from Brunei, New Zealand, Vietnam and most of Australia.
This week, Singapore cut the quarantine to just seven days for Hong Kong travelers, from 14 earlier. He has put the city on his list of low-risk places.
International travel in Asia collapsed during the pandemic due to border closures, with a 97% decline in passenger numbers in August, says the Asia Pacific Airlines Association.
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Chinese city punishes two officials for virus cluster
The Chinese city of Qingdao said it suspended its head of the health commission and fired a hospital director after an outbreak of coronavirus infections that ended China’s execution of about two months without reporting a local case.
The coastal city has reported 13 recent infections, most of them related to the Qingdao Chest Hospital, where infected travelers arriving from abroad had been treated in an isolation area.
One of the cases involved a dock worker who had previously tested positive for the virus but only developed symptoms after about 20 days, the city said.
Qingdao announced this week that it would test all of its 9 million residents for the virus over a five-day period.
More than 7 million results had returned as of this morning, with no infections beyond those reported, he said.
The new coronavirus first appeared in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
After the first missteps, China has taken aggressive measures to curb its spread, including mass testing campaigns when clusters appear, and has managed to nearly eliminate national broadcasting.
The total number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in mainland China is 85,622, with 4,634 deaths.
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