Four-week partial shutdown has started in Germany, with restaurants, bars, theaters, cinemas and other leisure facilities closing down until the end of the month in a drive to flatten a rapid rise in coronavirus infections.
The restrictions that took effect on Monday are milder than the ones Germany imposed in the first phase of the pandemic in March and April. This time around, schools, kindergartens, non-essential shops and hairdressers are to remain open.
Germany has reported over 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past week. That is fewer than in many other European countries, but far above the 50 mark that officials set earlier this year as an alarm signal that requires action by local authorities.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and state governors are to review the situation after two weeks and discuss whether the measures need to be adjusted.
“The aim is to get back under this level of 50 at which health offices are in a position to trace contacts,” Merkel’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, told RBB Inforadio.
Merkel said last week that authorities are currently unable to trace the source of three-quarters of infections.
The restrictions taking effect on Monday allow groups of at most 10 people, from a maximum two households, in public. Germans have been asked to refrain from making non-essential journeys and hotels are barred from accommodating people on tourist trips.
