Germany has announced the continuation of the lockdown until 18 April and asks citizens to stay at home. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced at a press conference late yesterday evening said the situation on the Covid front is “very serious,” and “The numbers are growing exponentially because of the English variant.” She said the risk that the trend could cause the vaccination campaign to fail.
Contacts between people will be reduced to a minimum and only food shops will be open. Churches will be asked to conduct services online. Travel abroad is not recommended: anyone flying back to Germany will have to be tested before the flight. Measures include the introduction of a curfew and the obligation for passengers to wear masks even in private cars.
In talks that ran deep into the night at a meeting with leaders of Germany’s 16 states, Merkel pushed to take a tougher stance to fight the pandemic, reversing plans for a gradual re-opening of the economy agreed earlier this month after a sharp rise in the infection rate.
Germany started cautiously easing restrictions earlier this month. But the spread of more infectious variants of the virus has pushed up cases, prompting concerns that hospitals could soon be overstretched without further curbs.
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