Coronavirus: Germany will reimpose national quarantine from Wednesday

The German government has ordered the reimposition, effective Wednesday and at least until January 10, of a national quarantine that involves the closure of non-essential businesses, the ban on New Years meetings and the recommendation for work and home education, due to the rebound in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced yesterday.

“We need to act urgently,” Merkel said after meeting her 16 ministers of state. “We have seen that infections have increased exponentially in recent days, and that means we have to mourn many deaths,” he said, explaining that the current Covid-19 containment measures are “insufficient” . Restrictions for private contact remain in place, so meetings are limited to five people from two households. There are only exceptions for Christmas, when the Germans will be able to invite four other people “from the closest family circle”. But whenever possible, a “protection week” with reduced contact should be applied before visits.

As far as schooling is concerned, it will be the federal states themselves who will decide whether schools are “closed in principle” or whether compulsory attendance is suspended, but the majority should close. In case of doubt, children should be looked after at home “to the extent possible”.

Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder underlined the unusual speed with which Merkel and her ministers reached consensus, just 45 minutes after the start of the meeting, and warned that Germany could become ‘the troubled child of the world. ‘Europe”. . “We’re five minutes from midnight,” he said.

In the past 24 hours, the pandemic has left 20,200 newly infected in Germany, up from 28,438 cases on Saturday, and 321 deaths, up from 496 dead the day before, with a total of 1,320,716 infected and 21,787 dead.