The Berlin government has approved a series of nationally valid measures to counter the spread of the coronavirus. These measures will prevail over the provisions adopted at the regional level, the Dpa said. The rules – nicknamed the ’emergency brake’ – include nightly curfew measures at the local level and the closure of shops in the event of an excessive increase in the numbers of infections. The decision will have to be examined by Parliament. The decision to adopt single measures is controversial in a country where the federal system allows individual states ample room for decision to manage local outbreaks of the disease.
Germany faces a third pandemic wave, judged by Angela Merkel to be “perhaps the worst” of all. The German Chancellor commented positively on the government’s “important, urgent” decision to approve single, national regulations in order to contain the spread of Covid. The so-called ’emergency brake’ will mean an end to the divergences between the policies adopted by the 16 states and would automatically take effect once infections in a given region rise too much. “The situation is serious and we have to handle it seriously … the country is in the grip of the third wave,” Merkel said during a press conference. As for the vaccination campaign, according to the Chancellor “it is improving every day”.
Germany recorded 10,810 new cases of Covid-19 and 294 deaths. According to data released by the Robert Koch Institute, the government agency in charge of monitoring the progress of the pandemic in the country, there are a total of 3,022,323 infections since the beginning of the health emergency with 78,746 deaths from complications related to Covid-19 . In Germany, there are about 243,400 active cases, while about 2,700,200 people have recovered after contracting the virus.