BERLIN (AP) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday advocated tougher restrictions on public life and urged her compatriots to cut back on socialization as the country recorded the highest number of one-day deaths from the coronavirus epidemic.
Despite the partial shutdown that began on November 2 – Germany is slowly moving towards a strict lockout for a limited period after Christmas.
The National Center for Disease Control, the Robert Koch Institute, recorded 590 deaths related to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours – more than 100 over the previous record. It counts 20,815 new daily infections, compared to 17,270 a week ago. Germany, with a population of 83 million, now has about 1.9 million cases of the epidemic, including 119,32 deaths.
“We are at a critical, perhaps decisive, stage in the fight against the epidemic,” Merkel told parliament on Wednesday. “These figures are at very high levels,” the frustrated Chancellor added, adding that the growing number of people in need of intensive care and death is “very worrying”.
Merkel has consistently advocated decisive action to fight the epidemic but has often had to proceed at a much slower pace because, in highly decentralized Germany, the country’s 16 state governments are responsible for imposing and lifting sanctions. He and the state governors meet periodically to coordinate measures.
In Germany, restaurants, bars, leisure and sports facilities are currently closed and hotels are closed to tourists, but schools and important shops are open.
In the spring in Germany, infections found in other major European countries managed to avoid a high number of infections and serious deaths, and still have a lower overall mortality rate compared to countries such as Britain, France or Spain.
But current numbers are not encouraging. According to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Germany’s new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days are now higher than France, Belgium and Spain, and lower than Italy, Sweden and many others, compared to Italy, Sweden and many others. Is.
Merkel noted that the National Academy of Scientists and Academics recommended on Tuesday that Germans should reduce their social contacts starting next week and put a “strict lockdown” from December 24 to January 10.
“We would do well to take seriously what scientists tell us,” he said.
Merkel called on state governments to close schools as early as Christmas and said that given the number of people dying daily, it was “unacceptable” for people to hop on a glass of wine over the holidays.
“If there are a lot of contacts before Christmas and then it’s our last Christmas with our grandparents, we’ll be careless.”
Some state governors are already moving towards stricter bans. The Eastern State of Saxony, currently the most affected, will close 10 more schools until Monday, January. Its southern neighbor Bavaria is introducing curfew-like measures at night in its worst-affected areas and will demand more home schools. And strict border control.
Most Germans supported the ban and the need to wear a mask, although a small but vocal minority opposed it and there were protests from various participants, including right-wing extremists and conspiratorial ideologues.
On Wednesday, local intelligence officials in the southwestern state of Baden-Wઅrttemberg said they were putting a group of protesters called Kardenken 711 under formal surveillance.
The group insists it has no place for extremism. But Beat Bubbe, head of the state’s local intelligence agency, said his office had observed that both the group’s membership and the scientist were linked to well-known right-wing extremist groups.
“The corona (virus) epidemic is being incorporated with radical, conspiratorial ideology and anti-Semitic material, with legitimate criticism of the state’s actions,” he said.
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David Rising and Kirsten Grischer in Berlin contributed to this report.
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