Germany closes non-essential shops and schools until January 10

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that all non-essential stores as well as schools and kindergartens will close from next Wednesday until January 10 to try to stop the second wave of the coronavirus.

The official noted the “very many deaths” due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the “exponential growth” of infections.

“We are obligated to act and we are acting now”He assured by announcing the new measures, which include the ban on New Years meetings and the recommendation for work and home schooling.

With this partial confinement, companies must allow their employees to work from home or facilitate vacations for the next three and a half weeks “to apply the principle of ‘we stay at home’“.

These measures were adopted by Merkel after a meeting this Sunday with the 16 regional leaders of the federal states.

Germany imposed more drastic measures after proving unable to stop second wave of Covid-19

The number of new daily infections reached 30,000 on Friday and Saturday, well above the daily average of the first wave, which Germany controlled better than many European countries.

The record for one-day deaths was broken on Thursday, with 598.

With the new data, the toll of the pandemic in German territory amounts to 1,320,716 people infected and 21,787 deaths, as published this Sunday by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German government agency in charge of infectious disease control.