BERLIN (AP) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday unveiled stricter restrictions on public life and begged her comrades to reduce socialization as the country announced its highest single-day death toll from the corona virus infection. Germany is gradually moving towards a tight lock-up, at least after Christmas, as new virus cases persist – despite a somewhat shutdown that began on November 2, and they have begun to rise. Robert Koch Institute of National Disease Control 590 COVID-19-related deaths in the last 24 hours – more than 100 more than the previous record of the week. It calculated 20,815 new daily infections, up from 17,270 a week earlier. Germany, with a population of 83 million, recorded nearly 1.22 million cases, including 19,932 deaths from the epidemic. “We are at a critical, perhaps decisive stage in the fight against the epidemic,” Merkel told parliament on Wednesday. “The figures are at an all-time high,” a frustrated chancellor added, describing the number of people in need of intensive care and death as “very dangerous”. Merkel continued to support decisive action to fight the epidemic, but often had to go slow, because in the highly decentralized Germany, the country’s 16 state governments were responsible for imposing and lifting restrictions. She and state governors meet from time to time to coordinate activities. Restaurants, bars, leisure and sports facilities are currently closed in Germany and hotels are closed to tourists, but schools and essential shops remain open. In the spring Germany was able to avoid the high number of infections and severe deaths found in other major European countries, and the overall mortality rate was even lower than in countries such as Britain, France or Spain. But current numbers are not encouraging. Germany’s new cases per 100,000 residents in the last 14 days are now higher than in France, Belgium and Spain, and the situation with Britain is lower than in Italy, Sweden and many more, according to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention. On Tuesday a National Academy of Scientists and Educators noted that Germans were advised to keep their social contacts “hard locked” from next week until December 24th to January 10th. “It’s good that we’re taking it really seriously, scientists tell us,” Merkel said. There are many contacts before Christmas, then this is our last Christmas with our grandparents, and then we would have been indifferent. ”Some state governors are already moving to stricter controls. Bavaria, its southern neighbor, is introducing measures such as night curfews in its worst-affected areas, and demanding home schooling and tighter border controls. In s. Most Germans supported the restrictions and masked demands, although a small but vocal minority opposed them and struggles took place to attract a wide variety of participants, including right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists. On Wednesday, domestic intelligence officials in the southwestern state of Baden-Wர்டrttemberg said they were keeping a close watch on Querdengan 711, a group conducting the protests. The group insists it has no room for extremism. But Pete Beaupe, head of the state Internal Intelligence Service, said his office had noticed members and ideological overtones with right-wing extremist groups on the board. “Criticism of government measures to control the corona (virus) epidemic is deliberately mixed with extremist, conspiracy ideology and anti-Semitic content,” he said. .com / hub / coronavirus-pandemic and https: ///apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
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