Germany under lockdown until 10 January

Germany under lockdown until 10 January due to "Exponential increase in infections”.

Germany has launched a Christmas lockdown after a dramatic increase in covid infections in recent days.  The lockdown will start on Wednesday 16 December and will last until 10 January.  Chancellor Angela Merkel announced it, underlining that the measures taken so far "have not worked".

Stores closed and distance learning

From Wednesday, all stores in Germany - except grocery stores and drugstores - will have to close, and the obligation to attend school will be withdrawn.  Children will have access digital lessons as much as possible.

Also read: The rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine this December now likely

The plan proposes that Germany will, between 24 and 26 December, allow "gatherings of five people plus children 14 years of age or younger in the immediate family circle." Outdoor gatherings and the sale of fireworks on New Year's Eve will be banned: this is one of the measures decided at the meeting between the state and regions this morning, according to Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a press conference in Berlin.

On Sunday, the RKI (the Robert Koch-Institut, the public health institute of Germany) reported 20, 200 new cases, bringing the total number of infections confirmed since the beginning of the pandemic so far to 1,320,716.  The death toll increased by 321 to reach 21,787.

Merkel cites new exponential increase of contagions

"The measures established on 2 November of have not acted sufficiently," we are again seeing an increase in cases of covid "and an exponential growth" of contagion, Angela Merkel said at a press conference after the meeting in Berlin. 

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"We know that the health system is already very strained.  Urgent action is needed," she added.  "The goal remains that we return to the possibility of reconstructing contact chains" and that a circumstance of a maximum of 50 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days has been reached again.

Also read: EU to distribute doses of Covid-19 vaccine early next year

Germany is at risk of becoming, in terms of the pandemic, ‘the case in Europe,’ "so we must act," said Bavarian President Markus Soeder after the meeting between the presidents of the regions and Angela Merkel.  "This morning there were no long negotiations on the details, because today the situation is different.  The coronavirus is out of control." The pandemic "is a catastrophe," he added, which is causing the biggest crisis we have seen 50 years.

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