The German authorities are preparing on Monday to give a new turn of the screw to counter the third wave of COVID-19, at the risk of plunging the country a little more into the doldrums and fueling discontent.
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Angela Merkel and the German regions meet on this occasion for a new meeting on the anti-pandemic strategy.
But while it was to be devoted a few weeks ago to further relaxations of partial containment, the agenda has completely changed in the face of the spread of the British variant of the virus.
In a preparatory document for the meeting, drafted by several regional states and obtained Sunday by AFP, it is requested that all restrictions and closures in force in the country, in theory until the end of March, be “extended” in April . The exact date to be determined on Monday.
The document speaks of an “exponential dynamic” of infections.
Emergency braking
This extension now seems certain, because the Chancellor has already spoken in this direction.
The national incidence rate indeed passed Sunday above the symbolic threshold of 100 (to 103.9), which triggers “emergency brakes”, namely new restrictions at the local level or cancellations of flexible measures recently. decreed.
“We will unfortunately have to use these brakes,” Angela Merkel warned on Friday.
In three weeks, the situation has completely changed in Germany, a European “good student” of pandemic management last spring and now threatened with being overwhelmed by a third wave.
The reopening planned for April 4 in outdoor catering or cultural and sporting places in particular, now appear to be very distant prospects.
Without waiting, the city of Hamburg decided on Friday to go back on the relaxations decided in early March and the announced reopening of zoos, museums or certain businesses.
Districts of the Land of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, one of the most affected by the pandemic, should follow the same path.
“It is quite possible that at Easter we have a situation similar to the one we experienced before Christmas, with a very high number of cases, many serious cases and deaths, and overwhelmed hospitals”, warns Lars Schaade, of the RKI health watch institute.
Germany is counting on the ramping up of its vaccination campaign to stop this dynamic. Vaccinations with the AstraZeneca vaccine resumed Friday, after four days of interruption, and more than 7 million people have received at least one dose, or less than 10% of the population.
120,000 stores threatened
But “an honest analysis of the situation shows that there are not yet enough vaccines in Europe to stop the third wave by vaccination alone”, admits the Minister of Health, Jens Spahn.
It is when the groups at risk will be vaccinated “that we can talk about wider openings of society,” he warns.
“You can turn it as you want, we must return to the lockdown”, asserts Karl Lauterbach, health expert of the Social Democratic Party.
But as elsewhere in Europe, the wear and tear of the population and of the economic and cultural sectors is being felt a year after the first closures caused by the pandemic.
If the closures of a large part of the stores continue, some 120,000 of them could disappear, estimates the German Retail Association.
The world of culture is also calling for help or trying to come up with protocols allowing places to be reopened. A dozen major Berlin stages thus started a pilot project on Friday allowing performances to be made in front of a previously tested audience.
The popularity of the chancellor and especially of her conservative party, weighed down by scandals of enrichment of deputies thanks to the purchase of masks, suffers as a result.
The victory of the right in the September elections, which seemed acquired, is no longer assured at all, according to recent polls.
Demonstrations by opponents of the restrictions are increasingly violent, like a rally organized on Saturday in Kassel, in central Germany, punctuated by incidents with the police.
Several German regions plead for an extension of the restrictions
Several German regions are calling for an extension of the anti-COVID restrictions currently in place in the country due to the third wave of the pandemic, according to a document obtained by AFP on Sunday.
Due to “the current dynamics of the infection accelerated by the COVID-19 variants”, it is necessary that the country “extend” until a date yet to be precisely determined in April all travel restrictions in force, underlines this document, prepared for a meeting scheduled for Monday on the subject between the Chancellor and the German regions.
Angela Merkel already let it be known on Friday that she herself intends to extend or even tighten the anti-COVID restrictions currently in place in Germany due to the third wave of the pandemic. These are currently scheduled until the end of March.
The incidence rate over the last 7 days and per 100,000 inhabitants exceeded the symbolic mark of 100 nationwide on Sunday, to 103.9, according to the Robert Koch health watch institute. A threshold which in principle should trigger new restrictions.
The preparatory document states that “inside contact” of buildings “should be avoided as far as possible due to the increased risk of infection”.
In companies, a large part of home work remains essential and “at least two rapid tests per week” can be carried out for employees having to go to their place of work.
The project opens up the possibility in regions of testing “temporary models” to “open up individual spaces of public life”, by setting as access criteria “negative test results” and the computerized follow-up of contacts.
Cross-border travel must continue to “be limited to the strict minimum”, by having to be combined with a quarantine and an obligation of testing before returning to Germany.
The Merkel government on Wednesday called on the Germans to be “responsible” in a pandemic period and not to travel to the popular Spanish island of Mallorca during the Easter holidays, despite the charter of numerous flights.