Coronavirus in Germany: Merkel bets on normal …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel today warned that January and February will be very tough months due to the coronavirus in the country, as she sees a sustained rise in infections and a record number of deaths. Merkel planned to not expect a return to normal until October 2021.

“If we are successful with the vaccine, we will have a fairly high hope that by the fall semester the situation will return to normal, but the winter will be difficult,” the Chancellor said, shortly after the Minister of Health , Jens Spahn, said that the European Union could authorize the vaccine against the coronavirus developed by the American laboratory Pfizer and the German BioNTech on December 23. Germany has nearly 1.4 million infected and 23,000 deaths from the disease.

In the past 24 hours, 14,432 new cases and 500 deaths have been reported, compared with 16,362 infections and 188 deaths the previous day, reported the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the government agency responsible for combating infectious diseases. , and warned that the pandemic situation in Germany is “more serious than ever”, even from the start.

In this context, Merkel regretted the lack of discipline of some German citizens over measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, behavior she described as “devastating” and stressed that “some people trust each other by the makes the virus primarily a threat to the elderly. “

During a virtual meeting with students, he expressed his prospect of a return to normal life within ten months and warned: “The second waves of pandemics are often the most dangerous”.

The partial confinement decreed by the German authorities in early November, which meant the closure of bars, restaurants and places of entertainment while schools and nurseries were still open, failed to stop the increase in infections in the country . Given the progress of the pandemic, he proposed a stricter blockade, which will last from this Wednesday to January 10 at least. The new closure includes significant restrictions also for schools and daycares.

Merkel’s message comes a day after Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said he was “relatively certain” the country would not be hit by a recession following the second lockdown in the pandemic.

“I am relatively sure that we will not experience a recession like the one that occurred in the spring,” Altmaier said, adding that the GDP of the leading European power fell 9.8% in the second quarter of 2020 as a result. of the first wave. , but it rose again, rising to a record 8.5% in the following quarter.

Despite Altmaier’s optimistic message, a survey by the Hans Boeckler Foundation found that nearly 40% of Germans believe that Covid-19 has had a negative impact on their finances, a figure higher than the June poll. while the percentage of Germans who had this perception was 32%.