According to the latest version of a draft resolution from a consultation meeting between the federal and state governments on Wednesday, the Chancellery plans to extend the pre-set shutdown measures, which expire on February 14, until March 14. The joint meeting is scheduled to start later in Berlin. DPA reported that the draft is the result of coordination with Berlin and Bavaria. The state of Berlin currently holds the chairmanship of the Conference of State Governors, and Bavaria is the vice chairman.
Hair salons to reopen from March 1?
However, the draft provides for exceptions to be allowed in order to somewhat mitigate the effects of the harsh shutdown in Germany. As a result, hair salons will be allowed to reopen conditionally as of March 1.
Among those prerequisites are compliance with health regulations, appointment scheduling and the use of medical masks. The reason for allowing barbershops to open earlier is “the importance of barbers for personal hygiene” and that “a significant portion of the population, especially the elderly, needs them.
The draft does not mention reopening dates for retail and restaurant businesses. What will happen next for hotels, museums, clubs, theaters and concert halls is also unknown. And it is up to the states to decide when schools and kindergartens will open.
The Prime Minister’s Office cited the spread of a new highly contagious virus variant as one of the reasons for requesting an extension of the shutdown. The draft states that the spread of the Variant virus requires us to “do more to reduce the number of infections.”
“We stay Home.”
The draft stresses that therefore, in principle, contact restrictions must be maintained in the coming weeks: “The principle of ‘we stay home’ remains a fundamental tool in the fight against the Epidemic, saving lives every day.”
Opening kindergartens and schools
On the eve of the joint consultation, representatives of the municipalities renewed their call for the reopening of kindergartens and schools by all means. Gerd Landsberg, chief executive of the Association of Municipalities, warned via the media that “Parents are exhausted. Something has to happen.” However, he said this does not mean that everyone can just go back to school, as is the norm. He noted that various flexibilities could be used, for example, “classes could be made smaller, they could be split into face-to-face and online classes.” In addition, he demanded that there should be more rapid testing for students and for teachers.
Chancellor Merkel recently warned again that the new crown restrictions should not be ended too hastily. She pointed out that “if we come out of the shutdown too soon now, we will gain nothing.” She stressed that the rapid opening implies the risk that “the number of infections will rise again soon.
Thomas Mertens, head of the Robert Koch Institute’s Standing Committee on Vaccination (Stiko), agreed that any relaxation of current vaccination measures at this Time would be problematic. He stressed that the risk of relaxation is that the number of new infections will rise again, and quite quickly. In a media interview, he explained that if the number of infections increases rapidly again, the risk of new coronavirus mutations will also increase, and that minimizing the number of infections is the most likely way to contain the outbreak.
The Robert Koch Institute reported that by Wednesday, Germany’s 7-day incidence rate per 100,000 residents had fallen to 68.0 from 72.8 the previous day. the federal government aims to keep the incidence rate below 50. According to the report, 8,072 additional confirmed infections and 813 new deaths from the new crown in the past 24 hours means that a total of 2,299,996,000 people have been infected and 62,669,000 have died from the disease in Germany since the outbreak of the new crown pandemic plague.
The agenda of the joint consultation held at the Chancellery on Wednesday also included a medium- and long-term open outlook on how to gradually return to normalcy as the number of infected people decreases.
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