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The spread of Germany’s coronavirus appears to be accelerating again, official data showed today, just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel said the country could gradually return to normal.
The Robert Koch Institute for Public Health said Germany’s reproduction rate (the R number) had risen to 1.1, meaning 10 people with Covid-19 infect an average of 11 others.
The RKI has warned that for the infection rate to be considered under control and to slow down, the R number must be kept below one.
As recently as Wednesday, the number for Germany stood at 0.65.
But since then, the country has reported clusters of new cases in slaughterhouses and nursing homes.
The RKI warned that it was too early to draw conclusions, but said the number of new infections “should be closely watched in the coming days.”
The latest data raised the alarm after Ms Merkel on Wednesday declared that Germany had left the “first phase” of the pandemic behind and that the federal states announced the relaxation of social restrictions.
Most stores and playgrounds have reopened, children are gradually returning to classrooms, and restaurants, gyms, and places of worship are reopening to varying degrees.
However, German local authorities agreed to put an “emergency brake” and re-impose social restrictions if the infection rate increases above 50 cases per 100,000 residents for a week.
That has already happened in at least three districts in recent days, according to the RKI.
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In Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, there has been an increase in cases at a slaughterhouse in the Coesfeld district, where around 200 of the 1,200 employees have tested positive for the virus.
Many of them are foreign workers from Eastern Europe living in shared housing.
The regional government has ordered workers at all slaughterhouses in the state to undergo tests. It has also delayed the loosening of some containment measures in the district.
An outbreak of Covid-19 at a slaughterhouse in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein has also pushed the Steinburg district above the infection threshold.
In the eastern state of Thuringia, the Greiz district has reported an increase in infections among residents and employees of various residences and a geriatric hospital.
There were also new fears about the planned restart of the Bundesliga soccer season on May 16, after second-tier Dynamo Dresden was ordered to quarantine for two cases of coronavirus.
Protests
Despite mounting concerns, some Germans believe the country is not moving fast enough to facilitate confinement measures.
Thousands of people took to the streets of cities across the country over the weekend to protest against the remaining restrictions, such as wearing a mask on public transport and limiting social contacts.
Tensions rose yesterday at a rally in Berlin, where hundreds of protesters chanted “Freedom, Freedom” and some threw bottles at the police. Several dozen people were detained.
In Munich, where some 3,000 protesters gathered yesterday, the police criticized the participants for not adhering to the rules of social distancing.
The demonstrations, which have grown in recent weeks, have primarily attracted a mix of far-right and far-left sympathizers.
But they are becoming more conventional.
A well-known politician from the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) party, Thomas Kemmerich, was criticized for joining a protest in the state of Thuringia that was also attended by members of the far-right party AfD.
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