Merkel is looking for a four-week lockout extension in German regression

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Chancellor Angela Merkel has proposed maintaining German blockade restrictions for another four weeks after Covid-19 cases exceeded a level that could lead to government action to avoid overburdening healthcare.

The plan would extend and slightly tighten existing curbs by April 18, according to a chancellery project seen by Bloomberg. Merkel and regional government leaders will discuss the proposals Monday during talks on how to proceed with the blockade amid an upward curve of infections in Europe’s largest economy.

With much of Europe heading for the Easter break at the end of March, the chancellery is proposing in the draft mandatory quarantines and Covid tests for travelers returning to Germany, while indicating that officials have not yet agreed on this measure. .

For severely affected areas of Germany, other possible edges where a final decision is pending include night shifts until 5 am and the closure of schools and childcare if teachers and students cannot be tested twice a week.

Cases in Germany are rising again according to the authorities began easing restrictions in late February and established a plan to gradually relax the remaining curbs – including partially close of non-essential shops and the closure of hotels, restaurants and gyms, as well as cultural venues. This plan depends on the trend of the infection, raising the stakes of talks on Monday after the number of cases has increased in recent days.

The seven-day national infection rate per 100,000 people has risen to 107.3, according to the Robert Koch Institute Health Agency reported Monday, the highest since January 26. Data from Johns Hopkins University showed that German cases increased by 768 in the 24 hours to Monday.

The recurring pandemic has led some health experts to warn that hospitals’ intensive care units are likely to be overwhelmed in a few weeks if the exponential increase in cases continues. On Sunday, the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care rose to 3,056, the highest in nearly a month.

“We expect a drastic increase in the number of patients in the next few weeks,” said Gernot Marx, president of the German organization for intensive and emergency care.

The resurgence of the resurrected

The spread of coronavirus in Germany has accelerated in recent days

Source: Robert Koch Institute

Germany uses the incidence rate as an indicator of the spread of Covid-19. If it exceeds 100 for three days in a row in a given region, an “emergency brake” provision allows the authorities to tighten the blocking measures again. That threshold has been exceeded in ten of 16 federal states since Monday, prompting some regional leaders to call for uniform nationwide measures for the virus’s hot spots.

“We have a tool that works: the emergency brake. It must be constantly applied everywhere in Germany, “Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview.” Otherwise it will become a toothless tiger. “

Regional leaders and Merkel cabinet members disagree on what to allow for the upcoming Easter holidays. The prime ministers of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony want to allow citizens to go on holiday within their own states, while German Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned against a “big wave of travel” that will put danger summer holidays in a interview with Bild am Sonntag.

“A lot of people are really tired of the crown and we have to take that into account in our decisions,” Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil said in an interview with ZDF television on Monday.

Emergency braking

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union has been lost two regional elections this month. The stuttering pace of the vaccine launch, irritation with blocking restrictions in place since the end of last year and a growing scandal over allegations that some Conservative MPs have taken advantage of the pandemic have affected its popularity.

Even so, the chancellor prepared the public for unpopular decisions at Monday’s meeting.

“We see an exponential increase” in cases, she said on Friday. “Unfortunately we will have to use the emergency brake.”

(Updates with new infection numbers, Easter holiday proposals and reactions from the sixth paragraph.)