Covid-19: Germany looking to extend lockdown curbs again

BERLIN: German authorities are expected to extend lockdown measures again on Monday and possibly tighten some restrictions as they face a steady rise in new Covid cases.


Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country's 16 state governors, responsible for imposing and lifting restrictions, are holding a videoconference nearly three weeks after they agreed on a several-step plan paving the way to relax some rules.

Since then, cases have risen steadily as the more contagious variant, first detected in Britain has become dominant. Most lockdown curbs are presently set to run through March 28. However, The chancellery is proposing an extension to April 18.

Instead of new moves toward a more normal life, one focus now is on pressing regional officials to use repeatedly an “emergency brake” provision under which relaxations granted in recent weeks — such as the partial reopening of nonessential shops — are supposed to be reimpose if new weekly infections in an area exceed 100 per 100,000 people in three consecutive days.

“Unfortunately, we will have to make use of this emergency brake,” Merkel said on Friday.

The weekly infection rate per 100,000 people stood at 107 nationwide on Monday, up from the mid-60s three weeks ago.

Restaurants, bars, leisure facilities and even the hotels are closed in Germany since early November.

At the same time, Germany's criteria for assessing the virus situation abroad meant that a travel warning for parts of Spain was lifted earlier this month, prompting a much-criticized rise of bookings to the popular vacation island of Mallorca.

There have been calls for people returning even from places abroad that aren't deemed “risk areas” to face obligatory tests and quarantine.

A court in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, said on Monday it had struck down rules requiring people to get appointments beforehand. It said they violated a requirement that businesses get equal treatment.

Meanwhile, Germany is trying to fast track its vaccination drive after a slow start. On Friday, Merkel and the state governors agreed to gradually bring on board ordinary doctors' practices just after Easter. So far, Germany has largely relied on special vaccination centers.

As of Saturday, 8,7% of the population had received at least a first dose of vaccine and 3.9% had received both doses.