Merkel is looking for another four weeks of blockade in Germany

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Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed keeping the German blockade restrictions in place for another four weeks after Covid-19 cases exceeded a level that could motivate government action to prevent an overload of health services.

The plan would extend existing sidewalks through April 18, according to a draft from the chancellery seen by Bloomberg. Merkel and regional government leaders will discuss the proposals on Monday during talks on how to proceed with the closure amid an upward curve of infections in Europe’s largest economy.

With much of Europe headed for the Easter holidays in late March, the draft suggests mandatory quarantines and Covid testing for travelers returning to Germany, although it indicates that officials have not yet set out to agreement on this measure.

For the hardest-hit areas of Germany, other possible borders where a final decision is pending include the night curfew until five in the morning and the closure of schools and daycare if teachers and students cannot do tests twice a week.

Cases in Germany are rising again after authorities began easing restrictions in late February and established a plan to gradually relax the sidewalk. This plan depends on the tendency to infection, which increases the stakes for Monday’s talks after skipping the number of cases in recent days.

The national seven-day infection rate per 100,000 people rose to 103.9, according to the Robert Koch Institute health agency reported Sunday, the highest since Jan. 26. Data from Johns Hopkins University showed that German cases increased by 24,034 in the 24 hours to Sunday, compared to 10,568 a week earlier.

The resurgence of the pandemic has led some health experts to warn that hospital-intensive vehicle units risk being overwhelmed in a few weeks if the exponential growth of cases continues. On Sunday, the number of patients with covid-19 in intensive care rose to 3,056, the highest in almost a month.

Germany uses the incidence rate as an indicator of Covid-19 spread. If it exceeds 100 for three consecutive days in a given region, an “emergency brake” provision allows authorities to tighten blockade measures again. That threshold had been exceeded in 9 of 16 federal states as of Sunday, prompting some regional leaders to call for uniform measures nationwide to detect hot spots against viruses.

“We have an instrument that works: the emergency brake. It must be applied consistently everywhere in Germany, “Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview.” Otherwise, he will become a toothless tiger. “

Regional leaders expressed divergent views on what to do before the upcoming Easter holidays when asked Diari Welt am Sonntag. Reiner Haseloff, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, said people should be able to holiday within the boundaries of their own region. Thuringian Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow begged people to avoid all holidays.

“Whoever thinks you can open entire holiday regions without testing in the current phase of the pandemic doesn’t know what’s going on,” Ramelow told the newspaper.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union suffered a thrashing two regional elections this month. The stuttering of the vaccine launch, irritation with blocking restrictions since late last year and a growing scandal over claims that some Conservative lawmakers benefited from the pandemic have affected its popularity.

Still, the chancellor prepared the public for unpopular decisions at Monday’s meeting.

“We’re seeing exponential growth” in cases, he said Friday. “Unfortunately we will have to use the emergency brake.”

(Draft updates from the chancellery proposing blocking until April 18th.)