Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription.

Germany’s health minister warned that the country is in the grip of a “third wave” of rising coronavirus cases as Europe tries to get its stalled vaccination program back on track.

“The numbers are rising, the share of mutations is large and there are some fairly challenging weeks ahead of us,” Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday at a news conference in Berlin, adding that there isn’t enough vaccine supply in Europe at the moment to halt the surge.

Germany and other European Union countries are trying to reset their inoculation campaigns after a chaotic week of suspensions, health scares, and export-ban threats. Countries across the bloc on Friday resumed using AstraZeneca’s covid-19 vaccine after temporarily suspending it to investigate a possible blood-clot issue. But while the European Medicines Agency has cleared the shot for use, worries among citizens may linger.

Further muddying the waters, France’s public-health agency on Friday recommended that the Astra vaccine should only be given to people aged 55 and older, as cases of clotting occurred mostly with people younger than that. The government in Paris said it would follow the agency’s advice.

The stubbornly high infection rate in Germany — mirroring the situation across the continent from France to Italy and the Czech Republic — raises the prospect that lockdown restrictions in Europe’s largest economy may be prolonged into next month or even sharpened, and a cautious reopening announced at the start of the month delayed.

Germany’s coronavirus cases rose by the most in two months in the 24 hours through Friday morning, days before Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts talks to decide on the next steps in the country’s strategy to contain the virus.

The seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 people continued to climb, rising to 95.6, the highest in more than a month and close to the threshold at which Merkel and regional officials agreed to reimpose restrictions.

Under the guidelines, curbs should be reinstated if the local incidence rate rises above 100 for three consecutive days, although several cities and regions have chosen to disregard the so-called “emergency brake.”

It will take “some weeks” for people most at risk to be fully inoculated, even if promised deliveries arrive on schedule, and only then can there be a discussion about lifting restrictions, Spahn warned.

Merkel and regional leaders are due to hold their next round of talks on Monday. Remaining lockdown restrictions — including the closing of non-essential stores, hotels, restaurants and gyms, as well as cultural venues — are due to expire on March 28.

Karl Lauterbach, a lawmaker for the ruling Social Democrats who is a trained epidemiologist, said the recent rise in cases makes stricter curbs inevitable. “It doesn’t make any sense to wait,” Lauterbach said at the news conference alongside Spahn.

He urged Germans to avoid travel over the Easter vacation, saying it would inevitably “fire the third wave” and make it much harder to get the virus under control.

An increasing number of Germans would support a tightening of the lockdown, an opinion poll published Thursday suggested. Among 1,207 people surveyed by infratest dimap for ARD, 32% said the current curbs are not stringent enough, 12 percentage points more than at the start of this month. The share that said they think the restrictions are adequate fell to 38% from 47%.

Source: https://www.stripes.com/news/europe/germany-is-gripped-by-third-wave-as-eu-tackles-vaccination-woes-1.666502

The post Germany is gripped by ‘third wave’ as EU tackles vaccination woes first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany reported a record level of coronavirus deaths as it entered a harder lockdown Wednesday, closing shops and schools to try to bring down stubbornly high new daily infections.

The country recorded 179.8 virus infections per 100,000 residents over the last seven days, a new high and significantly more than the 149 per 100,000 reported a week ago by the Robert Koch Institute, the country’s disease control center.

It also blew past its previous daily death toll, with Germany’s 16 states reporting that 952 more people had died of the virus, the institute said. That was far greater than the previous daily record set Friday of 598 deaths, although it included two days of figures from the hard-hit eastern state of Saxony, which did not report Tuesday. It brought the country’s overall pandemic death toll to 23,427.

“It’s as if the virus wanted to remind us how important what we’re now doing is,” Health Minister Jens Spahn said of the surge in deaths being reported on the day new restrictions come into force.

Faced with exponentially increasing cases in October, Germany implemented a “lockdown light” at the start of November, which closed bars and restaurants but left shops open. The measures slowed the weekly increase in new infections but didn’t bring them down, prompting officials to take more drastic measures.

In addition to closing shops and moving children to remote learning for the few days before the Christmas holidays, private gatherings are being limited to two households with a maximum of five people, among other things.

On Berlin’s upscale Kurfuerstendamm boulevard, Berlin resident Noury Oeddin looked around at the empty streets and shuttered shops in disbelief as the lockdown measures announced Sunday were put into force.

“It’s very strange, it’s not normal,” said the 46-year-old bakery manager. “I don’t know what these politicians want to do — they left it all open for too long, and now all of a sudden we had to quickly buy everything in two days. We people don’t know what they are doing anymore.”

Retiree Hans-Joachim Pauer said, however, that the measures were understandable.

“This is certainly harmful to the economy, but what alternative do we have?” the 71-year-old asked. “Certainly it is not good.”

Grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, banks, and other businesses providing services deemed essential — including Christmas tree vendors — can remain open.

In Saxony, where the virus is spreading most rapidly in Germany at the moment, hospitals are filling up. The state’s governor said more drastic restrictions might be necessary, calling it “pure poison” when too many people were still going out and about.

The restrictions are expected last until at least Jan. 10 but enjoy wide support, with the latest polls showing more than 80% of Germans approve of the lockdown measures or think they should be stricter.

“This year, I don’t think Christmas is that important, in the face of the facts we have in society right now,” said Stella Kretschmer, who was picking up a prescription in the western city of Cologne.

The 27-year-old student said she was in favor of shops being closed down.

“For me, consumption is not the most important thing,” she said, adding, however, that she does “feel sorry for the people who … have to fear for their jobs.”

Germany was widely praised for slowing the spread of its outbreak in the spring, but as people grew lax with distancing and mask rules over the summer the numbers of cases started to climb again.

While daily new cases peaked in March at about 6,000, they are now more than four times that level, with 27,728 new cases reported Wednesday by the Robert Koch Institute.

German officials have pressed the European Union’s regulatory agency hard to speed up its approval of a coronavirus vaccine, and the European Medicines Agency has scheduled a meeting Monday on that. With vaccinations expected to start before year’s end, German officials have urged people to stay patient and respect the regulations over the holidays.

Spahn, the health minister, said Germany was ready and could begin vaccinations within two to four days of the EMA’s approval.

“These are difficult days and at the same time they’re days that give rise to optimism, to hope, because there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” he told lawmakers. “Vaccination is the way out of this pandemic and we are well prepared for this path.”

Authorities in Berlin said late Wednesday that Spahn had informed health officials from the country’s 16 states about progress in getting regulatory approval for the vaccine made by BioNTech and Pfizer, and plans for shipping it.

“The states conclude from this that Dec. 27 will be the start date for vaccinations,” Berlin’s health office said in a statement. “In particular, the vaccination should begin in nursing homes.”

Dorothee Thiesing and Frank Jordans contributed to this story.

Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Source: https://apnews.com/article/germany-coronavirus-lockdown-pandemic-858a1e04805642c5efff7a0d7af68a23

The post Germany enters harder lockdown as virus deaths hit new high first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

As the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier welcomed the UK’s new Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Dominic RAAB to the Commission, the EU executive issued a Communication outlining the impact on the rest of the EU if the United Kingdom leaves the EU and becomes a third country on 30 March 2019.

There is no certainty that there will be a ratified withdrawal agreement in place on that date, or indeed what it will entail, and the Commission says it has been working hard to try to ensure that the EU institutions, Member States and private parties are prepared for the UK’s withdrawal.

Repercussions range from new controls at the EU’s outer border with the UK, to the validity of UK-issued licences, certificates and authorisations and to different rules for data transfers.

The EU executive’s Communication, which follows a request by the European Council (Article 50) last month to intensify preparedness at all levels and for all outcomes, calls on Member States, and private parties, to step up their preparations.

While the EU is working to ensure an orderly withdrawal, the Commission makes clear that the UK’s withdrawal will undoubtedly cause disruption – for example in business supply chains – whether or not there is a deal.

It also makes clear that, even if an agreement is reached, the UK will no longer be a Member State after withdrawal and will no longer enjoy the same benefits as a member. Therefore, it says, preparing for the UK becoming a third country is of paramount importance, even in the case of a deal between the EU and the UK.

The Commission says that everyone – including economic operators and other private parties – must now step up ‘preparations for all scenarios and take responsibility for their specific situation’.

Stakeholders, as well as national and EU authorities, need to prepare for two possible main scenarios:

• If the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified before 30 March 2019, EU law will cease to apply to and in the UK on 1 January 2021, i.e. after a transition period of 21 months.
• If the Withdrawal Agreement is not ratified before 30 March 2019, there will be no transition period and EU law will cease to apply to and in the UK as of 30 March 2019. This is referred to as the “no deal” or “cliff-edge” scenario.

Over the past year, the Commission has screened the entire Union ‘acquis’ (body of EU law) to examine whether any changes are needed in light of the UK’s withdrawal. To that effect, the Commission has adopted (and will adopt whenever necessary) specific, targeted legislative proposals to ensure that EU rules continue to function smoothly in a Union of 27 after the UK’s withdrawal.

The Commission has also published over 60 sector-specific preparedness notices to inform the public about the consequences of the UK’s withdrawal in the absence of any withdrawal agreement. Finally, by 30 March 2019 the two London-based agencies – the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority – as well as other UK-based bodies, like the Galileo Security Monitoring Centre, will be leaving the UK and a number of tasks performed by UK authorities will also have to be reassigned away from the UK.

Source: https://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/brexit-impact.19hc

The post EU warns of impact of Brexit on rest of Europe first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.