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Germany will toughen restriction measures from December 1 to early January to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, although during Christmas it will reduce some of them.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a press conference on Wednesday that agreement on new measures was reached after seven hours of negotiations with heads of government in all 16 federal states.
That country recorded a record number of deaths caused by the covid-19 infection on Wednesday, with 410 deaths in 24 hours, reports the EFE agency.
“We must continue working to reduce the number of cases and that is why we must tighten the measures,” explained the chancellor.
And he stressed that “the situation does not allow the elimination of restrictions” on social life and economic activity.
The current package of measures, in effect since November 2 and originally scheduled for this month, was only “partially successful”, with the exponential growth of covid-19 cases declining, despite the number of new daily cases falling. has stabilized at a “very high” level.
The goal remains for the cumulative incidence in seven days to be reduced to less than 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, with a current national average close to 150 and in 63 districts, including the capital, Berlin, above 200.
Angela Merkel called on the Germans for “one more effort” in the coming weeks and used the death toll recorded on Wednesday to remind herself that “there are lives that are disappearing too soon.”
The chancellor avoided putting a date on the end of the restrictions, when asked about the matter, adding that for now they are fixed until the beginning of January.
Bars and restaurants, theaters, cinemas, museums, ‘spas’ and gyms will remain closed as before, while the capacity of the stores will be one customer per ten square meters and one customer every 20 meters. for large commercial areas.
Consequently, the German government will expand the aid it has approved to compensate for the losses from the November restrictions – up to 75% of revenues in December 2019 – to which it plans to allocate between 15,000 and 20,000 million euros.
Tourism continues to be prohibited and masks are mandatory in crowded public places, which upholds telecommuting recommendations and limits contacts to a minimum.
The concentration of people has been reduced from ten to five people in up to two households, with no children under 14 years of age.
Schools are still open, but in places with the highest cumulative incidence, those over 12 years of age are forced to wear masks also in classrooms and if the situation worsens, a ‘hybrid’ educational modality (face-to-face and remote) is also envisaged. ) in institutes and universities.
After acknowledging that Christmas is a special date, Merkel announced certain exceptions between December 23 and January 1. In this period, the maximum number of people together increases to ten, not counting children under 14 years of age.
Considering that each region is different, local authorities will be able to tighten or relax measures, and the limit of 200 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants will be established as a goal to decide to introduce even more restrictive measures.
Germany posted a new record for COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, with 410 deaths in 24 hours. The number of new infections in 24 hours was 18,633, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
The total number of infections verified by the RKI since the beginning of the pandemic thus amounts to 961,320 – of which it is estimated that 656,400 patients are recovered – while the number of deaths amounts to 14,771.
The covid-19 pandemic caused at least 1,415,258 deaths derived from more than 60 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report prepared by the French agency AFP.
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