“Given the high number of infections, we assume that the restrictions which are in place before Christmas will continue to be valid until the start of January, certainly for most parts of Germany,” Merkel told parliament.

Merkel agreed with leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states late on Wednesday to extend and tighten the coronavirus lockdown until Dec. 20, but ease rules over the Christmas holidays to let families and friends celebrate together.

Merkel said the increase in coronavirus cases was still much too high and the number of deaths a reason for concern.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 22,268 to 983,588, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday, while the death toll rose by 389 to 15,160.

Merkel’s chief of staff said rules limiting social contact might be needed for longer.

“We have difficult winter months ahead of us. This will continue until March,” Helge Braun told RTL television.

“After March, I am very optimistic because we will probably be able to vaccinate more and more people and it will be easier to keep infection rates low with the spring.”

Merkel said vaccines could arrive before Christmas.

Germany imposed a month-long “lockdown lite” on Nov. 2 to rein in a second wave that is sweeping much of Europe. Bars and restaurants are closed but schools and shops remain open.

From Dec. 1, private gatherings will be limited to five people. Over Christmas, that number will rise to 10, not counting children, although families are asked to avoid social contact for a week ahead of visits.

The post German COVID-19 restrictions set to last into 2021 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday assured businesses that they would receive additional support during the partial second-wave lockdown that begins next week.

In her weekly video podcast, Merkel said up to €10 billion ($11.6 billion) would be available to areas of the economy hit by the new coronavirus restrictions.

Her comments come amid concerns that thousands of firms may not survive a long winter lockdown, having already struggled to deal with the first wave of the pandemic despite unprecedented state support.

Read more: German economy bounces back to beat expectations

“Companies and businesses that have got into trouble through the current crisis through no fault of their own will not be left alone,” Merkel said. “We want to help quickly and unbureaucratically.”

She said the government would “continue to do everything necessary to limit the burden of the pandemic on the economy and thus also for jobs and our prosperity, while at the same time, protecting the health of all of us.”

Business leaders to grill chancellor

Merkel is due to hold talks on Wednesday with leading employers and industry associations to discuss “how we can further cushion the effects of the crisis.”

Last week, the chancellor announced a one-month partial nationwide lockdown to try to stem a surge in coronavirus infections which threatens to overwhelm the health system.

From Monday German residents are again ordered to work from home, where possible, restaurants and bars and other entertainment venues will close and unnecessary travel is strongly discouraged.

The country on Saturday recorded another record number of daily infections, announcing 19,059 cases in the previous 24 hours.

The figures released by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control showed that almost a thousand people have died over the past month, taking the death toll to 10,452.

Read more: Death, mourning and the coronavirus: ‘No one should have to die alone’

Fresh demonstrations ahead of lockdown

Protests were held Saturday against the ongoing coronavirus curbs in Dresden, Karlsruhe, Darmstadt, Dusseldorf, Braunschweig and Munich.

Organizers of the Dresden rally — a group called Lateral Thinking — said several thousand protesters turned up.

As only 1,000 were registered, attempts were made to disperse people, many of whom did not wear masks.

In Karlsruhe, some 900 people joined a similar rally, which police threatened to shut down after attendees repeatedly failed to follow social-distancing guidelines.

Read more: Coronavirus: How the German military helps fight the pandemic

Theater staff in Munich created a human chain to highlight the severity of the measures’ impact on their work.

They held ribbons to ensure social distancing and underlined that they were not questioning the necessity of the restrictions but drawing attention to the needs of the arts sector.

Politicians have warned that an extension of the so-called lockdown light into December cannot be ruled out.

“It is very, very difficult to make long-term predictions,” Helge Braun, Minister in the Chancellery, told newspaper Bild.

mm/nm (AFP, dpa)

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-merkel-promises-to-shore-up-german-economy/a-55461398

The post Coronavirus: Merkel promises to shore up German economy first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Coronavirus infections are rising in Germany, official data shows, just days after the country eased its lockdown restrictions.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the reproduction rate – the estimated number of people a confirmed patient infects – is now above 1.

This means the number of infections is now rising in the country.

The report came as thousands of Germans gathered on Saturday calling for a total end to the lockdown.

Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a broad relaxation of national restrictions on Wednesday after talks with the leaders of Germany’s 16 states.

All shops are allowed to reopen, pupils will gradually return to class and the Bundesliga – Germany’s top football league – will restart as soon as next weekend.

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But there were protests across the country on Saturday, as some called for measures to be lifted even quicker.

Germany has the seventh-highest number of confirmed cases in the world, with latest RKI data on Sunday showing the reported infected tally at 169,218 and a reported death toll of 7,395.

What did the report say?

The reproduction number is a way of rating a disease’s ability to spread. It is not a fixed number because it changes as our behaviour changes or as immunity develops.

It is one of three important measurements for monitoring the outbreak, the others being the severity of symptoms and the number of cases.

The report from the public health agency released on Saturday said the reproduction rate was estimated at 1.1.

While this estimate involves “a degree of uncertainty”, the rise in the number requires “a close monitoring of the situation in the coming days”.

Germany has won praise for its response to the outbreak. Mass testing and effective lockdown restrictions have helped keep the death toll far lower than in other European countries.

But some have criticized Mrs. Merkel’s decision to relax those measures after speaking with the heads of the 16 states on Wednesday.

The chancellor imposed an “emergency brake”, requiring local authorities to reimpose restrictions if cases rise above a threshold of 50 per 100,000 people.

Outbreaks at meat processing plants in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein have already reportedly breached that line, and forced district officials to act.

And one district in the state of Thuringia reportedly recorded more than 80 infections per 100,000 people, thought to be due to outbreaks at care facilities.

The start of a trend?

By Damien McGuinness, BBC correspondent in Berlin

These latest official figures appear to show that the number of Covid-19 infections in Germany may be rising faster again.

The reproduction rate has risen to 1.1 – that means that ten people will pass the virus on to 11 more people. To keep the pandemic in check this level should be below one.

This figure though is an estimate. And it does vary a lot from day-to-day. So officials warn against interpreting too much into short-term changes.

But this all comes as Germany is easing restrictions in some of the riskiest areas for potential infections – such as restaurants, hotels, and professional football.

So the government will be watching closely to see if this does mark a trend. And if the virus is spreading more rapidly, some restrictions could be reimposed.

At the same time though the daily death toll in Germany is the lowest it’s been in more than a month. Fewer than 40 people here died of Covid-19 in the 24 hours until Sunday. In other large European countries, this level has at times risen to almost 1,000.

How is Germany taking the lockdown?

While some worry that the country is easing its restrictions too soon, others in Germany are protesting against the continued lockdown.

Small numbers of people have taken to the streets in recent weeks but on Saturday this swelled to thousands of people who gathered in cities across the country – including Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, and Stuttgart.

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Officers in Berlin arrested about 30 people outside the Reichstag on Saturday for not obeying social distancing measures. Authorities say some demonstrators threw bottles at the police.

Right-wing groups and conspiracy theorists also took part in some of the protests.

The post Coronavirus: Germany infection rate rises as lockdown eases first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.