Germany’s federal and regional governments on Thursday agreed on tougher, more targeted lockdown measures to contain local outbreaks and ward off the threat of a second coronavirus wave.

The new rules allow for a ban on travel “in and out of the affected areas” to limit the spread of the virus, according to an agreement adopted by federal and local authorities.

It comes as countries across the world are reimposing curbs on public life in response to a surge in new infections.

Germany, which has been less affected by the pandemic than many of its neighbours, aims to respond to new clusters with hyper-local lockdowns and rapid contact tracing and testing, rather than blanket lockdowns of whole
towns or districts.

The need for clear rules was highlighted last month when a Covid-19 outbreak at a slaughterhouse in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia led to Germany’s first renewed lockdowns, covering two neighboring districts.

However a local court later ruled that the lockdown was too broad, and locals from the districts on holiday elsewhere in Germany complained about being turned away from their accommodation.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday voiced support for travel bans in and out of coronavirus hotspots.

She said that it was “better for citizens” to have certainty rather than being denied entry to a hotel upon arrival.

READ ALSO: Germany reports over 200,000 coronavirus cases since start of pandemic

Calling in the army

The text agreed on Thursday states that a travel ban should be imposed “if the numbers continue to rise and there’s no certainty that the chain of infection has been broken” in the affected area.

Anyone wanting to leave a localized lockdown for another state must be able to show a negative coronavirus test that is less than 48 hours old, the agreement said.

Merkel’s chief of staff Helge Braun told the ZDF broadcaster that the goal was to fight the virus with “faster, smaller and more precise” curbs rather than the larger lockdowns that have caused such economic devastation.

He said the military could even be called in to help ensure locals in an affected area get tested as quickly as possible.

Germany’s Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB) welcomed the agreement, with CEO Gerd Landsberg calling local lockdowns “the right way forward”.

“This also means that lockdowns are not drawn out over months or weeks, but ideally last only a few days,” he told the Funke media group.

The new rules also come as Germany is anxiously eyeing the return of holidaymakers from abroad this summer, fearing they could be bringing the virus back with them.

Video footage of German tourists partying in Spain’s Mallorca – without face masks or keeping the recommended 1.5 metres apart – has caused particular alarm.

‘Reckless behavior’

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned Germans not to undo the progress made in combatting the virus.

“Such behavior is not just dangerous, but inconsiderate towards all those who would like to enjoy their holiday safely,” he told the Funke group.

“We’ve only just managed to open borders in Europe again. We must not jeopardize this with reckless behaviour.”

Meanwhile, the Tönnies slaughterhouse that was the source of the local outbreak in North Rhine-Westphalia reopened on Thursday after four weeks, prompting a protest from Greenpeace activists against mass meat production.

Germany has recorded just over 200,000 coronavirus cases to date, and 9,078 deaths, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.

The country has credited early, widespread testing and its world-class healthcare system for keeping the fatality rate relatively low.

Germans have also generally complied with rules on social distancing and wearing face masks.

READ ALSO: How face masks have helped slow down the spread of coronavirus in Germany

More than 15 million people have also downloaded Germany’s coronavirus warning app aimed at alerting people who’ve been in close proximity to an infected person.

Source: https://www.thelocal.de/20200716/germany-plans-for-tougher-lockdowns-to-ward-off-second-coronavirus-wave

The post UPDATE: Germany plans for tougher local lockdowns to ward off second coronavirus wave first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The fires that burned through the Amazon rainforest last month sparked international outcry and offers of help, but as world leaders meet in New York, the planet’s largest rainforest remains engulfed in flames.

The latest satellite data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) shows 131,600 fires burning since January within the country, where 60 percent of the Amazon lies.

The fires, which are mostly caused by humans with the goal of clearing land for farming and cattle ranching, are having a grievous effect on the forest: the rate of deforestation in the Amazon has nearly doubled since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro came to power on January 1, with the equivalent of 110 football fields of land being cleared every hour.

“It’s sad to see Brazilians attacking me for fires in the Amazon, as if they hadn’t always existed,” Bolsonaro wrote on Facebook Thursday.

We “remain below the average of the last 15 years. But I’m accused of being a Nero, who sets fires everywhere.”

Yet fires are at a seven-year high, according to INPE data, and despite a slight drop at the start of the month, the number of active fires recorded in Brazil from the start of the year to September 19 was up 56 percent over the same period in 2018. Nearly half of the blazes are in the Amazon.

Smokes rise from forest fires in Altamira, in Brazilian the Amazon basin state of Para, in late August 2019

Bolsonaro is a climate change skeptic, but last month he sent soldiers to help put out fires in the Amazon region after Brazil came under criticism at the G7 summit, with the host French President Emmanuel Macron among the most outspoken detractors.

Under that deployment, which was renewed Friday for another month, nearly 7,000 soldiers and 16 aircraft are fighting both the flames and “deforestation and illegal mining,” Brazil’s defense ministry said.

‘I’m going to get hit’

Marcio Astrini, a Greenpeace official in Brazil, said the deployment is making little difference.

“We did a lot of fly-overs. We did not see anything happening on the ground, apart from the deforestation that is progressing. It’s tragic,” he told AFP.

Experts sent by the United States, logistical equipment from Japan, and four aircraft from Chile are all fighting the blazes, while firefighters sent from Israel have departed, the defense ministry said.

A forest wildfire spreads onto a farm in the municipality of Nova Santa Helena, in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, in the southern Amazon basin region

Bolsonaro, however, has blanched at other international offers to help put out the fires, rejecting $20 million from the G7 and accusing members France and Germany of “buying” Brazil’s sovereignty.

On Monday, Macron will launch a “call for mobilization” on the Amazon together with his counterparts Sebastian Pinera of Chile and Ivan Duque of Colombia during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Brazil won’t attend the meeting, but Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, also a climate change skeptic, will appear at the UN’s climate summit on Monday, before traveling to Europe.

On Tuesday, Bolsonaro will make the opening speech at the UN General Assembly, in which he is expected to focus on the Amazon.

“I am preparing a rather objective speech, unlike my predecessor,” he wrote on Facebook, adding, “I’m going to get hit, you can be sure. The media always finds something to complain about.”

Loss of forest cover and Co2 emissions in countries that share the Amazon river basin between 2001 and 2018

No end in sight

Environmental groups have little faith that Bolsonaro will change tack.

The government “wants to show that it is doing the best for the forest. In fact, it is doing its utmost for deforestation,” said Greenpeace’s Astrini.

“Brazil is running a campaign to show that it is taking care of the Amazon. It’s a lie,” he said.

And there’s little to suggest that the fires are abating.

Between September 18 and 19, the number of forest fires in Rondonia state jumped to 242 from 12 just the day before, an increase of 1,915 percent, according to the INPE.

Smoke billows from a burning tree trunk near Porto Velho, in the western-central Brazilian Amazon basin state of Rondonia

Fears are also rising over the number of blazes in the Cerrado savanna, which account for a third of all the fires in Brazil.

And on Friday the World Wide Fund for Nature warned of an “emergency situation in the biome” of the Pantanal wetland.

Fires have risen 351 percent since January in the Pantanal region, some 90 percent of which were set illegally.

Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-09-global-leaders-amazon-rainforest.html

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