Covid-19, Germany imposes a curfew in 11 cities

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October 10, 2020

Faced with a worrying increase in Covid-19 infections, large German cities, including Berlin, are adapting to a curfew enacted from today, which alarms bars and restaurants.

In the German capital, venues will have to close their doors between 11pm and 6am, a time slot that usually sees tens of thousands of people wandering every weekend in the capital where many bars stay open all night.

The curfew, which affects all shops except pharmacies and gas stations, will be in effect at least until October 31st.

The sale of alcohol in service stations will also be prohibited.

This is a new blow to the economy of the city, already severely tested by the closure of the premises for several months.

In Frankfurt, the closing of bars and restaurants and the ban on the sale of alcohol between 10 pm and 6 am came into force yesterday evening. Cologne, capital of the most populous region of Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia, has announced the closure of bars and restaurants from 10pm. Here, for the seventh consecutive day, the incidence rate exceeded the bar of 50 infections per 100,000 inhabitants.

From now on, between 11pm and 6am, outdoor meetings should not exceed five people.

During the day, this indicator remains fixed at 50. A measure that has not prevented the "enemies" of the masks from calling a new rally in central Berlin this afternoon.

These restrictions are even stronger for indoor meetings, limited to 10 people.

The measures mainly target private parties that the Berlin authorities consider propagators of the new coronavirus.

The Bars of Berlin collective considers the measure to close bars and restaurants "disastrous" and is working on a possible legal remedy.

This curfew, unprecedented in the capital since 1949, risks, according to him, to deliver a "coup de grace to the bars".

numbers

on the progression of Covid are staggering.

In double digits for several days, they have now also exceeded the psychological threshold of 20 thousand (20,339).

There had been 18,000 in the last two bulletins.

The scenario is "difficult six months", the experts of the Scientific Council clarified, explaining that in May only 4.5% of the population had developed antibodies against the coronavirus.

So, it was found, in the first wave only a minority was in contact with Covid.

In the European epicenter of the pandemic, in addition to France, there are Spain and Great Britain.

The Spanish Ministry of Health has reported 12,788 new cases of coronavirus.

Madrid remains the most affected region, with 2,256 confirmed cases in the previous 24 hours, followed by Aragon with 487. The Spanish government has declared a state of emergency in Madrid, where special traffic restrictions are in place.

The far-right party Vox announced today an appeal to the Spanish Constitutional Court against the partial lockdown imposed in the capital and supervised by the police.

The

has more than 860 thousand confirmed cases of coronavirus, the highest in Europe, and has almost 33 thousand dead, the third highest total in Europe after the UK and Italy.

The UK is going through a "dangerous phase", acknowledged British Health Minister Matt Hancok following the record of 17,000 new infections in the

.

The conservative government, pressured by Labor but also by its MPs, has announced an increase in wage subsidies for workers of companies forced to remain closed for security reasons, as part of the new lockdown that is involving millions of people.

However, this does not mean that the time for a further tightening may come for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.