Angela Merkel after dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases: we have a new virus



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The German Chancellor and Land leaders not only agreed to extend the current containment measures, including the closure of cultural, sports and leisure facilities, until April 18, but also to further strengthen the quarantine measures from 1 to 5 of April.

Almost all stores will be closed during this period and religious services will be held online during the Easter period.

“It just came to our notice then. The number of cases is growing exponentially, intensive care beds are filling up again,” said A. Merkel.

The British strain of COVID-19 is prevalent and spreading in Germany, the chancellor said.

“We are going through a new pandemic,” he added, referring to this rapidly spreading variety.

“Basically, we have a new virus … It is much more deadly, much more contagious and lasts longer,” Merkel said.

Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder backed Merkel, saying “we are now in the most dangerous phase of the pandemic.”

Angela Merkel after dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases: we have a new virus

Negotiations on the quarantine have been stalled for several hours, due to deliberations over whether to allow residents to take a national vacation. Some regional leaders have said that it is unwise to allow people to vacation on the Spanish island of Mallorca, but to prohibit vacations within their federal state.

However, the leaders agreed to “encourage all citizens to refrain from unnecessary travel in and out of the country, including during the Easter holidays.”

Restrictions have started to be lifted in Europe’s largest economy: schools opened in late February and hair salons and some specialty shops were able to resume operations in March. However, Berlin and the Länder were forced to cancel the releases this week as the number of infections began to grow exponentially.

On Monday, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the last 7 days per 100,000. the population amounted to 107.3. More than 7,700 new cases and 50 deaths have been diagnosed in the last day.

German intensive care unit doctors on March 15. He warned that the country needed to “return immediately” to stricter containment measures to prevent a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

“(Given) the currently available data and the spread of the British strain, we urge an immediate return from quarantine to avoid a third wave,” Christian Karagiannidis, director of the German Intensive Care Registry, told RBB.

“We won’t earn much if we stay open for a week or two, but that will quickly lead to great [užsikrėtimo atvejų] and it will be twice as difficult to reduce them again, ”said Ch. Karagiannidis, who works for the Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), which oversees the capacity of German hospitals.

Since the end of February, when Germany began gradually easing the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic and opened some schools, hairdressers and other businesses, the number of new cases of COVID-19 infection has increased.

“It is clear that the number of intensive care units (patients treated in wards) will increase rapidly if we give the virus a chance,” he said. Ch. Karagiannidis also asked the government to continue vaccinating groups over 60 and over 50.

Robert Wieler, head of the German disease control agency, warned that the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had started in the most economically viable member of the European Union.

“We need to avoid the same situation that we had before Christmas, when there were many infections, many serious cases and many deaths,” said R. Wieler, head of the public health department at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).



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