Angela Merkel has prepared a draft for extending the lockdown which will be shared by Merkel’s video conference with Regional and National leaders
Germany will soon announce extension of national lockdown for another 4 weeks after Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases continue to rise, despite several efforts of the Government.
A decision of the lockdown is likely to be taken today, i.e., Monday, March 22, 2021. The Office of the Chancellor of Germany – Angela Merkel has already prepared a draft for extending the lockdown. The decision will be made by Merkel’s video conference with Regional and National leaders.
As per the draft, the lockdown will be extended till April, 2021. The draft also has provisions for evening curfews in areas with high number of cases. Meanwhile, all the passengers coming to Germany would be required to undergo a compulsory quarantine. The draft would also tighten obligations on companies who are not allowing their employees to work from home. Such companies would have to provide the employees with one COVID-19 test each week, at the cost of the company.
Earlier, the Regional and National leaders had agreed to a cautious opening, overriding the objections of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said more infectious variants had made the pandemic hard to control. As of now, Germany has a total of 26,70,001 cases and there have been 74,756 casualties. In the past 24 hours, it reported 768 fresh cases and 50 casualties. The increase in cases in Germany is said to be fueled by outbreaks among younger people.
According to the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, the number of cases per 100,000 population over a week stood at 103.9 on Sunday, which is above the threshold of 100 at which intensive care units will start running out of capacity.
Speaking on the occasion, the Health Minister of Germany – Jens Spahn said, “We have to be honest about the situation – in Europe we don’t have enough vaccines to stop a third wave through vaccinations alone.”
The lockdown which started on November, 2, 2020 will enter its 5th month. People in Germany are already tired of lockdown. The rolling extension of lockdown has made people feel that lockdown will never end. While the authorities reopened schools in late February 2021, some shops were allowed to resume business earlier this month.
Spahn further said, “The numbers are rising, the share of mutations is large and there are some fairly challenging weeks ahead of us.”
Giving some relief to people, the latest draft moots the idea of allowing the public to take low-contact vacations. People may be able to travel to apartments and vacation rentals or use caravans and mobile homes where social distancing rules can be maintained.
Besides, only 8% of the Germans have received the first dose of vaccine. Germany ahs also restarted the rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine, after halting it over concerns of blood clots in vaccinated people.
