BERLIN – Germany will keep its cultural and sporting facilities, as well as restaurants and bars, closed until January 10, said Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday, extending shutdown measures to curb transmission of the coronavirus.
“If the infection situation continues to develop as in the last days, we will meet again on January 4, and the states are extending the directive (for a shutdown) to January 10,” she said after meeting regional leaders of the country’s 16 states.
During a meeting a week ago, Merkel and state prime ministers agreed to stretch an ongoing shutdown that began last month through to the “beginning of January” unless new cases drop dramatically, but did not specify a date.
With an eye on applications by BioNTech-Pfizer, as well as Moderna, for the use of their Covid-19 vaccines in Europe, Merkel said 70 million doses in total can be delivered in the first quarter of 2021 if they are given authorisation.
But, that will not be enough for Germany’s 80 million-strong population, she said, stressing that the country will need to “get through winter” without huge stocks of doses.
A month into the nation’s new round of shutdowns, the number of fresh infections plateaued over the past two weeks, with October’s exponential growth brought to a halt.
In order to ease restrictions, the infection rate will have to come down to below 50 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants per week – a level where officials can effectively carry out their trace-and-isolate strategy, Merkel has repeatedly said.
Germany recorded another 17,270 infections and 487 deaths over the last 24 hours, according to disease control agency RKI. – AFP, December 3, 2020
