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FRANKFURT (REUTERS) – Germans should prepare for another four to five months of tough measures to halt the rise in coronavirus infections and should not expect current rules to be quickly relaxed, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told the weekly Bild am Sonntag.
“We are not out of the woods yet,” he said, referring to the infection figures. “We cannot afford a yo-yo shutdown, with the economy constantly opening and closing.”
Germany has imposed a series of measures called “blocking light” to curb the second wave of the pandemic that the country is seeing in common with much of the rest of Europe.
Although restaurants are closed, schools and stores remain open until now.
Data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday (November 15) that the number of confirmed cases in Germany increased from 16,947 to 790,503. The figures for the weekend tend to be lower, as local authorities do not report all the data.
Altmaier said Germany should be careful not to relax restrictions too quickly.
“If we don’t want days with 50,000 new infections, as was the case in France a few weeks ago, we have to see through this and not constantly speculate on what measures can be relaxed again,” he told Bild am Sonntag.
“All the countries that lifted their restrictions too early have so far paid a high price in terms of human lives lost.”
His comments echoed those of other German political leaders. Among others, Health Minister Jens Spahn told an online event for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party on Saturday that difficult weeks, possibly even months, remain.
The German president of the World Medical Association, Dr. Frank Ulrich Montgomery, warned of a possible shortage of beds and staff problems in German hospitals.
“My forecast is that we will have to talk about more restrictions instead of easing,” he told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.
German police fired water cannons during an anti-blockade demonstration in Frankfurt on Saturday and eventually broke up the meeting because rules such as wearing masks and social distancing were not observed.
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