Considered as the model to be followed in the management of the pandemic by the Legault government, Germany is preparing for a new turn of the screw in the face of an out of control spread of the virus.
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The German head of state called on Friday for increased use of teleworking in companies, a measure introduced by Quebec for office workers since December 17.
“We must reduce contacts in the world of work […], this is more necessary than ever ”, declared Franck-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democrat), during a meeting with the social partners in Berlin.
“It’s not always ideal, but it definitely protects against infections,” he added, calling on companies to “make telework possible”.
Nearly 25% of German employees, or 10 million people, work exclusively from home, according to a study by the union of digital companies Bitkom, published in December. The authorities would like to see this figure increase, while the health crisis is not weakening in the country.
“Each company, each administration must check whether it is not possible to do even more remote work”, also estimated Friday Steffen Seibert, spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In Quebec, the sustained increase in cases in the fall had forced the implementation of strict measures, as well as the imposition of remote work, and not only for office workers: the Minister of Education, Jean -François Roberge, had imposed teleworking on all school personnel, “except for major exceptions”.
Originally scheduled for the period from December 17 to January 4, this directive is still in effect due to the curve of cases in Quebec, which peaked at the start of the year.
For about a week, since the curfew was imposed, the trend of cases has been declining. After a peak of 3,127 daily cases unveiled on January 9, Quebec has recorded several consecutive days with a number of new daily cases hovering around 2000. The province has accumulated nearly 239,000 infections since the start of the pandemic.
For its part, Germany exceeded the two million cases recorded since the start of the pandemic on Friday. The most populous country in the European Union has also recorded 22,368 new cases of infection as well as 1,113 new deaths in the last 24 hours.
Crisis meeting Tuesday
At a meeting of the leadership of her conservative movement, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Chancellor Angela Merkel said the virus could only be contained with clearly toughened measures.
“The number of new infections is still far too high,” she said, judging that there were enough reasons “to further strengthen our efforts” to fight the pandemic.
According to the dailies “Der Spiegel” and “Bild”, the reintroduction of border controls as last spring is among the measures under study, as well as the generalization of the wearing of FFP2-type masks, the imposition of teleworking, even even the closure of public transport.
However, this is at this stage only a list of working hypotheses that have not yet been discussed with the leaders of the German regional states.
However, in the federal state of Germany, it is ultimately they who have the upper hand in matters, for example, of health or public transport.
“The measures in place currently, for me it is not a complete lockdown, there are still too many exceptions”, warned during a press conference the president of the Robert Koch institute, Lothar Wieler.
Germany, however, adopted strict measures several weeks ago, from the closure of schools and high schools, to non-essential shops, bars and restaurants, through drastic restrictions on authorized meetings.
After having been rather spared by the first wave in the spring, being a good student in Europe, Germany is one of the most affected states this winter, in 10th place, according to an AFP count.
– With AFP