Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday said the coronavirus situation in Germany is still very serious even though infection numbers are not rising so fast.
Federal and state leaders have postponed taking further decisions regarding lockdown measures until November 25.
Merkel said she would have preferred stricter lockdown measures and that she is worried about the spread of the virus in certain places like Berlin.
“So we have to reduce contacts, reduce contacts, reduce contacts,” Merkel said. She also noted that about 30-40 per cent of the German population were vulnerable, including elderly people and those with underlying health conditions, a Reuters report reads.
Merkel said that the country's officials are now better prepared to deal with the coronavirus than they were during the first lockdown.
Merkel has proposed additional mandates like shrinking class sizes in schools and making it mandatory for students to wear masks. Merkel in a five-hour video call urged local leaders to further limit public and private gatherings.
She reiterated that the seven-day incidence of the virus must fall below 50 per 100,000 residents before serious re-opening can be contemplated.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, said the government is making around 14 billion euros ($16.6 billion) available this month to ease the blow, up from the original allocation of 10 billion euros.
“Restrictions are never easy to decide on and have to be well thought through,” Merkel's Chief of Staff Helge Braun said.
As per data from the John Hopkins University, there were 14,580 new infections in the 24 hours through Tuesday morning, taking the total number of infections in Germany to 817,526.
