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German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors on Wednesday agreed to extend a partial shutdown well into December in an effort to further reduce the rate of Covid-19 infections ahead of the Christmas period.
Germany embarked on a so-called “wave-breaker” shutdown on 2 November, closing restaurants, bars, sports and leisure facilities but leaving schools, shops and hair salons open. It was initially slated to last four weeks.
Merkel said the measures will now be extended until at least 20 December, with a goal of pushing the number of new coronavirus cases in each region below 50 per 100,000 inhabitants per week.
“We have to continue to pursue this goal,” she told reporters in Berlin.
Merkel said that while existing measures have succeeded in halting a surge in new coronavirus infections, they have stabilised at a high level.
Germany’s disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, reported 18,633 new cases over the past 24 hours — compared with 17,561 a week earlier.
“We can’t be satisfied with this partial success,” she said, noting that health officials on Wednesday also reported 410 deaths linked to Covid-19, the highest single-day total yet.
“(This) reminds us in the saddest way that behind the statistics are human fates,” Merkel said.
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