January 19 On the evening of the 19th local time, German Chancellor Merkel announced after talks with state governors that she would extend the “lockdown” measures currently implemented in Germany until February 14 and strengthen the implementation of pandemic prevention measures, including requiring that doctors must wear medicine when taking cars and shopping in the future.
Use masks instead of homemade masks, and require employers to create conditions for employees to work from home whenever possible in the future.
Due to the complexity of the pandemic prevention situation caused by the discovery of multiple variant strains in China, the videoconference originally scheduled for 25 this month was postponed to the 19th.
After the meeting, Merkel held a press conference to introduce the latest resolution reached between the federal government and the states.
Among them, the current “lockdown” measures, including the closure of most shops and primary and secondary schools, kindergartens, restaurants and coffee shops, etc., only provide take-out services, and each family is allowed to meet with only one outsider, etc., which will be extended to February 14.
The latest resolution upgrades the current “mask order” and in the future people will no longer be allowed to wear homemade simple masks when taking public transportation and shopping, but must wear medical masks (surgical masks or N95-compliant masks).
In addition, the federal government has issued a new decree requiring employers to create conditions for employees to work from home to reduce social contact at work in the future.
The resolution pointed out that both the federal and state are worried about the current emergence of a variant strain “B1.1.7” that was first discovered in the United Kingdom and significantly more infectious in Germany, and if the strain spread widely, it would seriously worsen the German pandemic.
To this end, the parties agreed to take the necessary preventive measures to faster reduce the number of new daily confirmed cases that are now beginning to show a downward trend. The resolution calls for the public’s attention that the next few weeks will be a critical stage in determining the trend of the pandemic.
The number of new confirmed cases and deaths announced by the German disease control agency on the same day were 11,369 and 989 respectively.
According to the real-time data of Germany’s “Time Online”, as of about 21:00 p.m. local time on the 19th, Germany has confirmed a total of 207,491,49,49,589 people have been cured and 49,265 people. At present, 12,20,284 people in Germany have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
Merkel said on the same day that the slow decline in the number of new confirmed cases gives hope to everyone, but in order to prevent highly infectious variant viruses, additional measures must be taken to prevent the risks posed by variant viruses.
