Germany cannot afford from an economic point of view a new lockdown, as it did in the spring during the first wave of coronavirus; there is an urgent need to take control of the pandemic. This was stated on Wednesday at a press conference in Berlin by German Chancellor Angela Merkel following a meeting with the prime ministers of the federal states.
“We adopted a budget that provides for the new debt of more than € 250 billion this year alone. Therefore, we, including economically, cannot afford the second wave we had in the spring, with such consequences,” Merkel said. So, according to her, “it’s not just about the healthcare system.”
The Chancellor stressed that the country is “at a critical stage” in the fight against the pandemic and the behavior of people in the coming weeks will be critical. Merkel said she was worried about the “exponential growth” in the number of new infections.
The head of the FRG government admitted that the results of the meeting were not entirely satisfying. In particular, the chancellor and the heads of the regions were unable to reach unanimity on the issue of introducing a single ban on the placement of citizens from the so-called risk zones — areas where the number of infected people exceeds 50 per 100 thousand residents during the week. “It’s really not easy to implement,” Merkel said. This topic will be discussed after the fall break, which began this week in several lands.
An outbreak of the disease caused by the new coronavirus was recorded at the end of 2019 in Central China, spread to most countries in the world, and was recognized by the World Health Organization as a pandemic. In Germany, according to the Berlin Institute of Virology named after Robert Koch, as of Wednesday morning, 334 585 people were infected, the daily increase was 5 132 cases. This is the maximum in about the last six months. 9 677 residents of Germany died of the consequences of infection.
