Germany orders partial blockade to curb virus

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Germany will enter a partial lockdown starting Wednesday and non-essential shops and schools will close in a bid to halt “exponential growth” in coronavirus infections.

The partial lockdown runs until January 10, and companies are urged to allow employees to work from home or offer extended vacations, under new measures agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel with regional leaders from Germany’s 16 states. .

“That would help implement the ‘stay at home’ principle,” according to the political document agreed by Merkel and the state prime ministers.

Germans are urged to limit their social contacts to another household, with a maximum of five people, excluding children under 14, who meet at any given time.

From Christmas Eve to St. Stephen’s Day, contacts would be relaxed to allow meetings with four other people excluding children, but which should be limited to close relatives or partners.

In November, Germany closed cultural and leisure facilities and banned indoor dining in restaurants.

The measures had helped stem the rapid growth of infections after the fall school holidays, but the numbers had stalled at a high rate.

Ms Merkel had repeatedly pushed for tougher restrictions to break the chain of contagion, but implementation of the rules is in the hands of individual states and some have been reluctant to impose further restrictions.

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However, the mood changed in the last week after Germany recorded a new daily death toll that reached nearly 600 and when the country’s disease control agency RKI reported that the trend towards infection has taken a worrying turn.

“Today is not the day to look back or to see what could have been, rather, today is the day to do what is necessary,” said Ms Merkel, noting “a very high number of deaths” and emphasizing the urgent need to act. .

“The situation in the crown is out of control,” Bavarian state prime minister Markus Soeder said, welcoming the stricter restrictions he promised to implement in his state.

Germany has imposed closure rules much less strict than other major European nations after emerging relatively unscathed from the first wave of the pandemic.

But Europe’s largest economy has been hit hard by a second wave with new infections daily more than three times higher than the spring peak.

Germany recorded another 20,200 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, reaching a total of 1,320,716 cases, according to RKI data released today.

Another 321 patients died from the disease a day earlier, bringing the total death toll to 21,787.

“With increased mobility and the additional contacts thus linked in the run-up to Christmas, Germany is now experiencing exponential growth in infection figures,” said the policy document agreed by regional leaders and Ms. Merkel.

While hospitals in some regions are warning that their intensive care units are reaching full capacity, huge lines of shoppers were forming in the center ahead of the holiday period.

Merkel had also expressed her dismay at the growing groups of people gathering for a drink at the mulled wine stands set up by restaurants as a substitute for the popular Christmas market fare.

Starting Wednesday too, the sale of alcohol would be banned in public places, essentially banning such mulled wine stands.

In a forceful speech to the Bundestag on Wednesday, Merkel had issued a stark warning to Germans ahead of the Christmas season, when families are expected to reunite.

“If we have too many contacts before Christmas and it ends up being the last Christmas with the grandparents, then we really would have failed,” he said.

Merkel’s government has repeatedly said that the numbers should be lowered to 50 per 100,000 people, but the rate is currently 169.1 per 100,000.

Before the talks, the worst-affected states in Germany already ordered new measures.

The state of Saxony, where incidence rates have reached 500 per 100,000 in some areas, will close shops and schools from Monday.

The curfew will also go into effect from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

South Korea struggles to cope with third wave of virus

Elsewhere, South Korea reported 1,030 new coronavirus cases today, a record for the second day in a row as the country struggles to tackle a third wave of infections.

The country had previously been presented as a model for how to combat the pandemic, and the public largely followed social distancing and other rules.

But a resurgence focused on and around the capital has prompted President Moon Jae-in to apologize on Facebook for his administration’s failure to contain the latest wave.

Yesterday, he called the situation “very serious” after authorities reported 950 new infections, the largest daily increase since the start of the pandemic.

People filling out forms for a coronavirus in Seoul, South Korea

Yesterday’s record was broken today with 1,002 new locally transmitted cases, about 786 of which were discovered in the Seoul metropolitan area, home to half of the country’s 52 million people.

The weekend numbers followed several days in which authorities reported numbers ranging from 500 to 600.

South Korea’s rebound came despite the government tightening social distancing rules in the capital area earlier this week.

The strictest restrictions include a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people and spectators at sporting events.

Cafes can only serve takeout food, while restaurants must close by 9pm, and deliveries are only allowed afterwards.

However, authorities said yesterday they may have to further toughen sidewalks to the highest level by closing schools, banning gatherings of more than 10 people and allowing only essential employees to enter offices.

South Korea suffered one of the worst early Covid-19 outbreaks outside of mainland China, but it largely controlled it with its ‘track, test and treat’ approach.

It has never imposed the kind of blockades ordered in much of Europe and other parts of the world.



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