Angela Merkel – Action Press / Shutterstock / SIPA
Even if the vaccine brings “hope”, the “historic” crisis of coronavirus is expected to continue in 2021, warned the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel , this Thursday, in her New Year’s greetings.
“These days and these weeks (…) are times difficult for our country . And that will last a long time yet ”, declared the Chancellor in her speech, the last because she will complete her fourth and last term in the fall 1000.
“The challenges posed by the pandemic remain immense”
“The winter remains difficult”, added the one who has headed Europe’s largest economy for fifteen years, again qualifying the pandemic as “a historic crisis”. Long considered a European “good student” in the management of the epidemic,
Germany was hit hard by the second wave of the coronavirus and had to decree a new partial confinement at least until January. “The challenges posed by the pandemic remain immense,” she insisted, thanking the vast majority of Germans for having respected the instructions for reducing contacts aimed at fighting the spread of the virus.
In total, 32. 107 people have succumbed to the virus in Germany since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest figures from the Robert Koch health watch institute (RKI). The daily death toll exceeded 1,000 for the first time on Wednesday, a record that the RKI also explained as a catch-up effect, as regional health authorities sent it incomplete data due to the Christmas holidays.
“Hope has a face: that of the first vaccinated”
In view of all the dead and their relatives, the Chancellor blasted the movement of corona-skeptics in the country, who have distinguished themselves by several major protests partly accompanied by violence this year. “I can only imagine the bitterness felt by those who mourn a loved one because of the coronavirus, or those who continue to suffer from after-effects, when the existence of the virus is contested or denied by some”, did she say. “Conspiracy theories are not only false and dangerous, they are also cynical and cruel towards these people,” she hammered.
The coming year is more than ever placed under the sign of hope, she nevertheless estimated, with reference to the start of vaccinations in the country and in Europe. “In recent days, hope has had a face: that of the first vaccinated” in retirement homes and nursing staff. Since her fifteen years at the head of the executive, “never have we, despite concerns, been so eager to enter a new year”, she judged.