BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel supports demands for a short and hard closure in Germany to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as infection rates are too high, a German government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Germany is struggling to cope with a third wave of pandemic and several regional leaders have called for a short and strong closure as the country tries to vaccinate more people.
“All calls for a short, uniform closure are correct,” government deputy spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer told reporters, adding that Germany was seeing an increasing number of intensive care patients.
“We need a stable incidence below 100,” he said, referring to the number of cases for seven days per 100,000 inhabitants. It is currently 110.1, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for Infectious Diseases.
He also said the government was studying whether measures were needed at the national and non-regional levels.
“The range of regulations doesn’t help acceptance,” Demmer said. While some states have imposed night curfews during Easter, others are experimenting with some reduction of restrictions.
Merkel pressured regional leaders on March 28 to step up efforts to curb rapidly rising coronavirus infections, adding a highly veiled threat that would otherwise have to consider what action could be taken nationally.
One option would be to amend the Infection Protection Act to stipulate what should happen in certain scenarios and that could allow the federal government to implement a national shutdown without getting the approval of the 16 state prime ministers.
Demmer said the government was still studying that option, but no final decision had yet been made.
The Bild newspaper reported that Conservative lawmakers are currently working on a bill to give the federal government more powers to control the third wave.
Most German federal ministers were against advancing talks scheduled for April 12 on what action should be taken.
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Germany rose Wednesday by 9,677 to more than 2.9 million, the Robert Koch Institute said. He has warned that the numbers do not yet show the full picture, as not all cases were recorded during Easter. Some 77,401 people have died.
Reports by Andreas Rinke and Michael Nienaber; Writing Madeline Chambers; Edited by Maria Sheahan, Kirsti Knolle