Angela Merkel wants to expand restrictions on …

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, wants to extend the restrictions until April coronavirus facing the third wave of cases, according to a draft proposal that the government will present tomorrow to the federated states.

Due to the “current dynamics of infection accelerated by variants of the Covid-19“, The country should” extend “until a date to be determined in April all traffic restrictions in force.

Likewise, the text considers that States could implement “Provisional model projects” to “open up specific spaces to public life with strict protection measures”. The document offers trips for vaccinations and “low contact vacations” to each federal state, a proposal that needs to be discussed with the states themselves.

Merkel and the prime ministers of the Länder will debate tomorrow on the the next steps to stop the third wave of infections.

However, the country’s municipal federations have demanded that the government stop focusing on incidence, that is, the number of coronavirus infections per 100,000 inhabitants, and that a new indicator of the evolution of the pandemic be introduced.

The authorities agreed at their last meeting Cancel the flexibilities again if the incidence is greater than 100 infections per 100,000 population. Value that Germany reached yesterday, according to authorities reported today.

Burkhard Jung, president of the German Federation of Towns and Municipalities, did not agree with this policy.

“We should introduce a new indicator of coronavirus in Germany that also takes into account vaccination rate, intensive care unit load and case-related mortality“Jung told reporters.

Current situation

Contagions with coronavirus in Germany added 103.9 cases every 100,000 inhabitants for seven days, according to data provided by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the body in charge of the fight against infectious diseases.

In contrast, health authorities reported 13,733 new infections and 99 deaths in the past 24 hours.

The value above 100 has, in principle, a symbolic meaning, but the respective incidence in the different regions of the country is decisive for the flexibility of the restrictive measures of social and economic activity.. The day before, the figure was 99.9. The maximum value of this marker was reached on December 22 with 197.6.

Further protests against the restrictions took place in several German cities and police cracked down on protesters.