“We must therefore act prudently and carefully so that a third wave does not require a new complete shutdown throughout Germany.”
In large parts of Europe, cases of newer Covid-19 variants are being recorded, especially those that first appeared in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Both apparently spread faster than previous variants.
In Germany’s advanced approach to reopening, hairdressers have to resume on March 1, while most other businesses have to stay until March 7.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, the country’s public health authority, there are currently about 61.7 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people in Germany. Merkel said the aim was to reduce the incident rate to 35 per 100,000 to reopen the economy in a meaningful way.
Merkel defends the decisions of the states to reopen schools, saying that districts that achieve the rate of 35 in 100,000 can do so without having an impact on other areas.
She added that the large-scale testing will be implemented in line with the restored reopening of the country.
“An intelligent opening strategy is inextricably linked to comprehensive rapid testing, as it were, as free trials,” Merkel added. “I can not say exactly how long it will take to install such a system. But it will be in March.”
Germany was able to delay the infection rate of Covid-19 with its closure, which includes the closure of its borders with Austria and the Czech Republic. Czech health authorities are now confirming daily record cases of infections, with its death toll to one of the worst per capita in the world, pushing its hospitals to the brink of collapse.
Germany, like many countries of the European Union, is struggling to put in place a widespread vaccination program that will help a faster reopening of its economy. The European Union distributes its vaccines evenly among its 27 member states, proportionally to their population, but it has received ten million doses more than it expected.
The European Parliament is expected to convene pharmaceutical companies in a public hearing on Thursday and demand answers over the failure to deliver the agreed number of vaccine doses.
The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, has warned that restrictions in his country are starting to lose their impact, highlighting the urgent need to boost the group’s vaccine supply.
“The objective situation in Austria was simply that the exclusion lost its effect after six weeks. People were sticking to it less and less, there are more and more shifts to the private sector, and a closure in which no one is participating, of course, makes little sense, ‘he told the German newspaper Bild.
He will push the European Union on Thursday to introduce a “green passport” system to allow vaccinated people to travel within the bloc.
While Germany and several other European countries are considering lifting their restrictions, France – which resisted a new national exclusion when new variants emerged – is drafting new ones. President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce new measures on Thursday.
The French Riviera has been closed for the next two weeks over the weekend, while the region around the northern port town of Dunkirk starts with the weekend closing.