Germany is registering first worrying signals just a few days after decreeing the start of a return to normal with coronavirus, when other countries like France and Spain are entering deconfinement.
The Robert Koch National Institute of Virology, responsible for monitoring the evolution of the pandemic, reported Sunday an increase in the rate of infection, ironed around the area considered to be potentially dangerous, to 1.1. This so-called “reproduction” rate measures the average number of people that a person infected with Covid-19 will in turn contaminate. A number less than 1 suggests that the number of infections is decreasing, while a higher level suggests an increase to come.
An evolution to "watch very closely"
The institute warned that it was still too early to draw conclusions, but said in a report that the infection figures were "to be monitored very closely in the coming days".
On Sunday, Germany registered 169,218 cases of contamination, just 667 more in the past 24 hours, which is little compared to the average of the last weeks. The death toll stood at 7,395, a fatality rate of 4.4%, lower than that of most other large countries. In this context, the authorities announced Wednesday a gradual return to normal, after the start of deconfinement on April 20, with in particular the reopening of primary schools and restaurants.
However, after a few days only first failures are registered.
New sources of contamination
Three German cantons exceed the authorized limit of cases of new contaminations within the framework of the deconfinement plan (50 per 100,000 inhabitants), and one of them has already postponed as a result flexibility measures. Five others are approaching this threshold, according to statistics released Sunday by the RKI institute.
The new sources of contamination have been reported in particular in retirement homes and industrial meat processing workshops, employing hundreds of workers from Eastern Europe in questionable hygienic conditions. Several of these workshops have been closed and large-scale tests in this industry ordered.
A second wave feared by Angela Merkel
These hiccups seem to confirm the fears of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had to give in to pressure from the German regions Wednesday, during a stormy meeting, to accept new stages of deconfinement. According to several media, she even threatened to resign on this occasion in the face of the eagerness of the regions. The Chancellor fears that the population will relax too quickly and cause a second wave of infections.
"We are in a critical phase, it is to be feared after the first measures of deconfinement that some people become reckless," said a leader of the Greens, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, in the daily Handelsblatt. "The deconfinement has given the signal that the worst is behind us, but that is not true," echoed him a social democratic official, Karl Lauterbach.
Despite the current return to normal, for part of the population this is not going fast enough. Several thousand people demonstrated again on Saturday, notably in Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne or Berlin, against what remains of restrictive measures, in particular the wearing of masks in shops, public transport, as well as the ban on large gatherings.
The police carried out a few arrests on Alexanderplatz in Berlin where a few dozen protesters threw bottles at the police with cries of "Freedom!" Freedom ! " These demonstrations bring together supporters of the extreme right as well as the extreme left.
- Angela Merkel
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- Covid 19
- Germany
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