A woman in a street in Cologne, in Germany, on January 4 2020. – AFP
Faced with a rebound in the coronavirus epidemic, Germany is obliged to extend the restrictions , and strengthen its partial containment until 31 January, announced this Tuesday Chancellor Angela Merkel .
Schools as well as most stores non-food, bars, restaurants, cultural, sports and leisure facilities will remain closed until that date. “We also invite all citizens to limit contact to the strict minimum” in order to combat the pandemic, the Chancellor said during a press conference after a meeting with the 16 Presidents of regional states.
A radius of 11 kilometers
From now on, private gatherings are only allowed, outside one’s own household, with another person, against five from another focus so far. If strict confinement as some European countries have put in place is not on the agenda, a limitation of travel within a radius of 15 kilometers from home will be set up in districts where the viral incidence exceeds 100 new infections for 35. 000 inhabitants.
Currently, this concerns some 000 millions of people, particularly in the east of the country in Saxony, Thuringia but also in Bavaria, territories particularly affected by the second wave. “Today we find ourselves in borderline situations in some hospitals, which once again prompted us to adopt these resolutions today,” said Angela Merkel.
Several months of restrictions
She also justified these new measures by the expansion of the new strain identified in Great Britain, possibly more contagious. “The measures we have decided are drastic. (…) They are harder ”, she admitted, speaking of a“ race against time ”.
The head of the Bavarian regional government Markus Söder has warned against any hope of a rapid return to normalcy, warning that “we still have to live with it. the virus for several months ”. Germany had Tuesday 1. 518. 310 officially declared cases of Covid – 16 since the start of the epidemic with 10. 897 new cases officially declared in 24 hours. The number of deaths, with 897 new Tuesday, amounts to a total of 31. 518, according to the Robert Koch health watch institute.