{"id":155047,"date":"2021-01-15T00:39:31","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T21:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/merkel-urges-tougher-shutdown-over-virus-resurgence\/"},"modified":"2021-01-15T00:39:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T21:39:31","slug":"merkel-urges-tougher-shutdown-over-virus-resurgence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/merkel-urges-tougher-shutdown-over-virus-resurgence\/","title":{"rendered":"#Merkel urges tougher shutdown over virus resurgence"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Merkel urges tougher shutdown over virus resurgence<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday called for tougher restrictions to contain the country’s worsening coronavirus outbreak and pushed for crisis talks with regional leaders, party sources told AFP.\n <\/p>\n

At a meeting of senior members of her centre-right CDU party, Merkel said she wanted to bring forward a planned meeting with state premiers to “the coming week”, participants told AFP.<\/p>\n

They quoted her as saying the virus could only be stopped with “significant additional measures”.<\/p>\n

She also voiced concern about the virus strain that recently emerged in Britain and is considered more contagious, saying people urgently need to reduce their social<\/a> contacts.<\/p>\n

Germany fared better than many of its neighbours in the early days of the pandemic, but has been hit hard by a second wave in recent months.<\/p>\n

The country recorded more than 1,200 COVID-19 deaths over the past 24 hours, a new record.<\/p>\n

More than 25,000 new daily coronavirus cases were reported, the Robert Koch Institute said, and hospital beds are filling up.<\/p>\n

Merkel and the leaders of Germany’s 16 states were originally scheduled to hold their next meeting on January 25 to take stock of the current shutdown measures.<\/p>\n

Der Spiegel weekly reported that among the tougher options being considered were border checks, requirements to wear high-quality FFP2 masks in some places and getting more people to work from home.<\/p>\n

Germany has continued to see high infection rates despite being in some form of shutdown since the beginning of November.<\/p>\n

‘Too many exceptions’<\/b><\/p>\n

Bars, gyms, cultural and leisure centres were closed in early November, followed by non-essential shops and schools in December.<\/p>\n

Authorities have also turned the screw on social gatherings, limiting contacts to two households and urging people to stay at home wherever possible.<\/p>\n

The RKI on Thursday echoed calls for stronger measures to bring down coronavirus infections, noting many people were still socialising too much.<\/p>\n

“The measures that we are taking now\u2014for me they are not a complete lockdown, there are still too many exceptions,” RKI head Lothar Wieler told a news<\/a> conference in Berlin.<\/p>\n

There is “total consensus” among statisticians that stricter measures would be needed to get “to a stage where the incidence rate is falling substantially and rapidly”, the RKI’s Dirk Brockmann added.<\/p>\n

But mobility has been significantly higher during the second shutdown than during the first round of restrictions in the spring, according to the RKI.<\/p>\n

“People are on the road a lot,” Brockmann said.<\/p>\n

Germany, with 83 million people, began vaccinating against COVID-19 in late December and on Thursday passed the milestone of one percent of the population receiving their first jab, according to the RKI.<\/p>\n

Regional poll delayed<\/b><\/p>\n

The worsening pandemic on Thursday prompted German parties to agree to postpone a regional election in the eastern state of Thuringia, moving it from April 25 to September 26.<\/p>\n

Thuringia is a current hotspot in the pandemic, recording 310 new cases per 100,000 people over the last seven days, compared with the national average of just over 150, according to the RKI.<\/p>\n

The regional vote will now coincide with Germany’s general<\/a> election, the first in over 15 years that won’t feature Merkel, who is bowing out of politics.<\/p>\n

The Thuringian election was one of the first state polls scheduled for 2021, and was going to be closely watched as a test of the national mood heading into the post-Merkel era.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Merkel urges tougher shutdown over virus resurgence (2021, January 14)
\n retrieved 14 January 2021
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2021-01-merkel-urges-tougher-shutdown-virus.html<\/p>\n

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