A woman in a street in Cologne, Germany, January 4, 2020. -
AFP
Germany plans to reduce to “almost to nothing” international air traffic to its territory in the face of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, the Minister of the Interior announced on Tuesday.
"The danger represented by the various mutations of the virus demands that we within the government examine and discuss drastic measures," Horst Seehofer told the daily
Bild
.
Among them, "stricter border controls, in particular with areas considered to be at very high risk, but also the reduction of air traffic to Germany to almost nothing, as Israel is currently doing", he said. -he adds.
"The population, which accepts significant restrictions in Germany" in the face of the pandemic, "expects us to protect them as best as possible from an explosion in the number of cases," said Horst Seehofer.
New infections on the decline
The daily number of new infections in the country has tended to drop in recent days, below the 10,000 threshold, following new restriction measures planned until mid-February.
But the death rate remains high, at around a thousand a day, and the authorities are especially worried about an upsurge to come due to the various mutations of the virus.
According to some media, Chancellor Angela Merkel herself raised the possibility of a shutdown or a sharp reduction in international air traffic during a closed-door meeting with her MPs.
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