A lockdown and a curfew in Germany are needed to stop the third wave of coronavirus infection in the country. This was stated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, reports Reuters.
“The third wave of the pandemic is holding our country tightly in its grip. Resuscitation workers send one help signal after another. Who are we to ignore their pleas? ” – she noted during her speech in parliament.
Merkel has asked parliament to expand the powers of federal authorities so that they can freely impose curfews in high-contamination areas, stressing that most Germans are in favor of strict measures.
Her speech was met with criticism from lawmakers of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which opposes the new lockdown, the agency reports.
Earlier, Merkel said that the third wave was the most difficult for Germany. According to her, now the number of people infected with coronavirus is “too large”, and the workload of intensive care units is increasing again. The German Chancellor added that so far, “the most important weapon in the fight against the pandemic” remains vaccination.
At the end of March, the German authorities planned to tighten restrictions on Easter. However, Merkel later said that plans to announce a lockdown in Germany were a mistake and apologized to the citizens.
The European Commission announced the start of the third wave of COVID-19 in Europe on March 19. The number of people infected with coronavirus in Germany began to grow in early March. Over the month, the figure rose to 30.3 thousand infected per day, follows from data from Johns Hopkins University.
Over the past day, 29.4 thousand people infected with coronavirus have been identified in Germany, the total number of cases in the country exceeds 3 million. 79 thousand people have died, 2.7 million have recovered.
