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After hours of crisis negotiations with the prime ministers of 16 German Länder, the chancellor said the latest restrictions were necessary as a “precautionary measure for the health of our country, our citizens and the economy.”
Merkel and the Länder prime ministers agreed that medical masks will be mandatory in stores and on public transport. This means that only surgical masks or respirators type FFP2 will be allowed.
They also said that employers should make it possible for employees to work from home if possible. In the past, companies have been urged to take steps to reduce the number of employees in offices so that as few people as possible use public transport.
“All of our efforts to control the spread of the virus are in grave jeopardy,” the chancellor told reporters, referring to a new strain of coronavirus that had caused an increase in the disease in the UK and Ireland.
“There is still time to control the danger,” he said. “We have to act now.”
Germany closed restaurants, sports and entertainment facilities in November. Schools and most stores also closed in mid-December to curb the rapid increase in morbidity. They will remain closed until at least February 14.
Merkel’s spokeswoman Steffen Seibert previously said that these measures had helped smooth the curve for COVID-19 cases, noting that the number of patients treated in intensive care units had decreased slightly.
Negotiations between the Chancellor and the Prime Ministers of the Länder were brought forward a week due to fears of new strains of coronavirus recently detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Merkel said she would call for “timed measures” at the European Union summit on Thursday to curb the spread of new strains of coronavirus.
The chancellor warned that Europe’s largest economy could be forced to reintroduce border controls if its neighbors do not reach a common agreement.
“If the countries decide to go the other way, we must be prepared to say that we are returning border controls. We don’t want that, we want to reach an agreement with our partners,” he said.
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