COVID-19: Germany Heads Into Second lockdown

Germany will enter a hard lockdown from Wednesday, with
non-essential stores shuttered, employers urged to close workplaces
and school children encouraged to remain at home.

The tighter restrictions — including a ban on gatherings over
the New Year — will last until at least Jan. 10 after a looser
shutdown failed to halt a surge in daily coronavirus infections and
deaths. Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed the measures with the heads
of Germany’s 16 states in talks Sunday and warned of rising
pressure on the nation’s health system.

“There is an urgent need for action,” Merkel told a news
conference. “We have seen rising infections and exponential growth
in recent days and that means that we have to grieve many
dead.”

After comfortably handling the initial wave of the pandemic, the
country is lagging behind many of its neighbors, and officials came
under increasing pressure to act days before Christmas. Infections
and fatalities rose by record amounts on Friday, and almost 22,000
have died from the disease, out of a total of 1.3 million
cases.

“The coronavirus is out of control, so we don’t want to do
things piecemeal but act decisively,” Bavaria Premier Markus Soeder
said alongside Merkel, describing the pandemic as a “catastrophe”
and calling for a national effort to tackle it. “If we’re not
careful, Germany will quickly become the problem child of Europe,”
he warned.

Germany’s stumbles in dealing with the disease are linked to its
complex and at times dysfunctional federal system, Merkel’s pursuit
of open borders and political power plays ahead of next year’s
national election. It puts Europe’s largest economy at risk of
another blow to consumer and business confidence after the spring
lockdown triggered a collapse in activity.

A group of retailers wrote to Merkel warning of “disastrous
consequences” if stores are closed during the key shopping month of
December, Bild newspaper reported Sunday. “You are also irrevocably
sealing the insolvency of thousands of retailers and putting
millions into unemployment,” Bild quoted the letter as saying.

Germany will enter a hard lockdown from Wednesday, with
non-essential stores shuttered, employers urged to close workplaces
and school children encouraged to remain at home.

The tighter restrictions — including a ban on gatherings over
the New Year — will last until at least Jan. 10 after a looser
shutdown failed to halt a surge in daily coronavirus infections and
deaths. Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed the measures with the heads
of Germany’s 16 states in talks Sunday and warned of rising
pressure on the nation’s health system.

“There is an urgent need for action,” Merkel told a news
conference. “We have seen rising infections and exponential growth
in recent days and that means that we have to grieve many
dead.”

After comfortably handling the initial wave of the pandemic, the
country is lagging behind many of its neighbors, and officials came
under increasing pressure to act days before Christmas. Infections
and fatalities rose by record amounts on Friday, and almost 22,000
have died from the disease, out of a total of 1.3 million
cases.

“The coronavirus is out of control, so we don’t want to do
things piecemeal but act decisively,” Bavaria Premier Markus Soeder
said alongside Merkel, describing the pandemic as a “catastrophe”
and calling for a national effort to tackle it. “If we’re not
careful, Germany will quickly become the problem child of Europe,”
he warned.

Germany’s stumbles in dealing with the disease are linked to its
complex and at times dysfunctional federal system, Merkel’s pursuit
of open borders and political power plays ahead of next year’s
national election. It puts Europe’s largest economy at risk of
another blow to consumer and business confidence after the spring
lockdown triggered a collapse in activity.

A group of retailers wrote to Merkel warning of “disastrous
consequences” if stores are closed during the key shopping month of
December, Bild newspaper reported Sunday. “You are also irrevocably
sealing the insolvency of thousands of retailers and putting
millions into unemployment,” Bild quoted the letter as saying.