A couple walks past an abandoned store after buying new skis for the next season with a huge discount during winter sales, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown continues, in Bonn, Germany, March 16, 2021. (File photo: Reuters)
Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged Germans to accept nationwide pandemic restrictions that took effect at midnight, resulting in a 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew and further limits on personal contacts and access to nonessential stores in regions with high infections.
In her weekly video address Saturday, Merkel acknowledged that the new rules are “tough” but insisted they are needed to curb the spread of the virus in the country.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Germany’s disease control agency on Friday reported 23,392 newly confirmed cases and 286 more deaths from COVID-19. Since the start of the pandemic, Germany has recorded almost 3.3 million cases and 81,444 deaths.
Merkel said the new measures, which automatically take effect in regions with more than 100 new cases a week per 100,000 inhabitants, are “urgently needed.”
Citing other countries such as Britain, Portugal and Ireland that saw infection rates sharply reduced during strict lockdowns, she defended Germany’s new restrictions against critics who have called them excessive.
“No country that managed to break the third wave of the pandemic and then loosen restrictions again did so without tough measures such as nighttime curfews,” Merkel said.
Dozens of German celebrities this week posted videos mocking the restrictions. Some have since deleted their videos and apologized for echoing far-right narratives about the pandemic while appearing to downplay the suffering of those who lost loved ones to COVID-19.
Germany’s lawmakers this week approved legislation that applies an “emergency brake” consistently in areas with high infection rates, doing away with the patchwork of measures that characterized the pandemic response across the country’s 16 states.
Read more:
Lebanon’s private and public sectors cooperate on COVID-19 vaccination campaign
India asks Twitter to take down some tweets critical of its COVID-19 handling
Some US states resume use of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine
