Germany impose partial lockdown for November

[toast]

Quote

Coronavirus: Germany to impose one-month partial lockdown

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced tough new measures from Monday, November 2, in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. But will the German people be compliant?

Germany

Coronavirus: Germany to impose one-month partial lockdown

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced tough new measures from Monday, November 2, in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. But will the German people be compliant?

(...)

• Restaurants and bars will close, except for take-away
• Large events will be canceled again
• Unnecessary travel is discouraged 
• Overnight stays in hotels, except for in emergency situations, is banned 
• All those who can work from home should do so and employers should ease a transition into working from home 
• Meetings in public will be restricted to just two households of up to 10 people total.
• Entertainment facilities such as theaters and cinemas will be closed
• Public recreation centers such as swimming pools, gyms and saunas will be closed

Full article on DW

I support that decision at full scale.

[+OverSword]

I'm expecting similar here as the cold and flu season hits.  

[L.A.T.1961]

I wonder if the significant second wave in Germany is due to the relatively low infection rate during the first wave ? 

Macron has just put France back into lock down.

https://www.france24.com/en/video/20201028-macron-sends-france-back-to-lockdown-as-cases-spiral-out-of-control

[toast]

1 minute ago, L.A.T.1961 said:

I wonder if the significant second wave in Germany is due to the relatively low infection rate during the first wave ?

Yes, we passed the first wave with very good results compared to other countries. But I prediced already, before the summer holidays, that the numbers will increase after the holidays and this exactly happened. Too many morons who had vacation trips even to hot spot countries, too many stupid party people, too much religious blinded people who participated to church events and too much idiots who thought C19 to be over now because the (first) lockdown was finished. Its a mess, really. But as I have said various times already, the virus is a very smart one because it use the stupidity of its potential hosts.

[+and-then]

2 hours ago, OverSword said:

I'm expecting similar here as the cold and flu season hits.  

Very possibly.  I'm set to get my flu shot as soon as this LATEST storm passes us.  Having flu and Covid hospitalizations at the same time could push the health system to overload.

[+and-then]

21 minutes ago, toast said:

, the virus is a very smart one because it use the stupidity of its potential hosts

Anthropomorphizing a virus is a little odd, don't you think?  Does it hide in dark places and wear a mask before it attacks, as well?  

[the13bats]

5 hours ago, and then said:

Very possibly.  I'm set to get my flu shot as soon as this LATEST storm passes us.  Having flu and Covid hospitalizations at the same time could push the health system to overload.

So you flipped to supporting lockdowns, way to go

[Hankenhunter]

13 hours ago, toast said:

But will the German people be compliant?

Germany

Like any population, 30% will either ignore the lockdown, and or violently oppose it. See U.S for example. Germany has it's share of right wing nut jobs, but they're a little firmer with controlling theirs.

Edited October 29, 2020 by Hankenhunter

[Timothy]

5 hours ago, Hankenhunter said:

Like any population, 30% will either ignore the lockdown, and or violently oppose it. See U.S for example. Germany has it's share of right wing nut jobs, but they're a little firmer with controlling theirs.

Does ‘any population’ include Melbourne, Australia? 

Pretty sure most people just saw common sense and did the right thing... 

Maybe 1% ignoring or ‘violently opposing’.

[Timothy]

Seems to be working for now @Hankenhunter, comments?

[Timothy]

@Hankenhunter I don’t like calling people out like this; but do you concede? Or have you taken a different position? Or still arguing your prior position?

Today was the 12th day of zero new cases here in Victoria, Australia. To be honest, I assumed and still expect that there would and will be flare-ups in areas until there’s a vaccine. 
But people are doing the right thing, still nothing like 30% ignoring or opposing. 

Honestly interested in you current opinion.

 

[Eldorado]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday ordered most stores to shut from Wednesday, along with schools and daycare centers.

The new restrictions will be in effect until at least January 10 to help tackle the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic which threatens to overwhelm the country's health system.

In a news conference after a meeting of federal and state leaders, she said the country urgently needed to address the exponential rise in COVID-19 infections.

Full report at DW: Link

Gotta feel for retailers. 

[toast]

As some might be confused about this (quote from the article):

Quote

People may not purchase fireworks for New Year's Eve.

This was done on request of the German hospital association (or so) to relieve medical staff in hospitals and emergency units from "standard New Year's Eve patients" who got injured by fireworks ("fly thumb fly, up up to the sky") and/or as a result beeing totally sloshed. In addition to the resolutions of today, from next Tuesday on all people above the age of 60 and people of other risk groups will get 3 FFP2 masks per month for little money, 2€/piece, distributed through pharmacies.

All in all I fully agree on the upcomming lockdown. There are dicussions why the 2nd lockdown wasnt established earlier but anyway, the way our goverment handle the crisis is a very good example how good a government can be if the HQ is staffed with smart and social driven people.

[Eldorado]

Related:

Netherlands: Five-week lockdown

Prime Minister Mark Rutte says the country will go into a strict lockdown for five weeks, from 15 December to 19 January.

All schools, non-essential shops and many other public venues and spaces will close. Citizens have been told to refrain from booking non-essential travel abroad until mid-March.

Restrictions will be eased slightly for the three days of Christmas, when Dutch households are allowed three instead of two guests, not counting children under 13.

BBC report

[Eldorado]

Germany reported 962 deaths from the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, the highest daily toll since the beginning of the pandemic.

The country also saw 24,740 new infections over the past 24 hours, up from 19,528 new cases confirmed on Tuesday, according to the country's disease control agency.

The nationwide lockdown, which began on Dec. 16, has helped to prevent exponential growth in new infections, but the seven-day average remained above 23,000 a day.

Full report at Anadolu: Link

[Eldorado]

German Health Minister Jens Spahn is telling Germans to diligently follow coronavirus safety rules, warning that vaccines won’t arrive quickly enough to prevent a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. New infections in Germany are rising at a “very clearly exponential rate,” Spahn said.

“There are not yet enough vaccine doses in Europe to stop the third wave by vaccination alone,” Spahn said at a news conference Friday, according to a translation by Deutsche Welle. “Even if the deliveries from EU orders come reliably, it will still take a few weeks until the risk groups are fully vaccinated.”

Germany’s infection rate is rising at a pace not seen since the record spike it endured in December and January.

WUFT

[stevewinn]

My God. Italy France also seeing cases rise.

[Helen of Annoy]

 

1 hour ago, Eldorado said:

German Health Minister Jens Spahn is telling Germans to diligently follow coronavirus safety rules, warning that vaccines won’t arrive quickly enough to prevent a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. New infections in Germany are rising at a “very clearly exponential rate,” Spahn said.

“There are not yet enough vaccine doses in Europe to stop the third wave by vaccination alone,” Spahn said at a news conference Friday, according to a translation by Deutsche Welle. “Even if the deliveries from EU orders come reliably, it will still take a few weeks until the risk groups are fully vaccinated.”

Germany’s infection rate is rising at a pace not seen since the record spike it endured in December and January.

WUFT

  

Vaccine alone wouldn't stop it either. 

My nextdoor neighbour, Serbia, vaccinated to the left and to the right (using all types of vaccines that there are in the market), there's over 800,000 citizens (out of approx.7 million) with completed (both doses) vaccination and still they've got third wave hitting them hard (more than 5,000 new cases today). 

They really did acquire more than enough of vaccines and still the number of new cases is rising. 

(It's not my intention to use them as a bad example, they're not, they're by far leading in vaccination compared to my and other neighbouring countries, but their new cases numbers are awful.) 

The vaccine is very important because it significantly reduces the number of patients requiring intensive care and the death toll too. But it seems it doesn't stop the spread of disease on its own. It's not a type of disease we can get a guaranteed immunity from, just by (currently existing) vaccines.

[Duke Wellington]

Is this the new strains hitting on the continent?

The Brazilian one is immune to the current vaccines. The English and South African variants arent, but they have higher viral loads making them spread faster and it takes the edge off the vaccines.

[Helen of Annoy]

21 minutes ago, Cookie Monster said:

Is this the new strains hitting on the continent?

In my country, currently, British variant is found in majority of cases. Thanks a lot. Kidding. 

On the brighter side, the percentage of those who develop serious form of the disease is dropping. (The theory I'm personally most fond of is that a lot of people have been exposed to the virus by now, in amounts low enough to not cause the noticeable disease, so getting infected is not such a shock for the body as it was initially, without prior exposure to the virus. I might be wrong, so I keep my mask on, and keep the distance and wash my hands obsessively.)

But for some reason the percentage of younger people is rising among those who require hospitalization. (Might be because the new strains are more likely to cause severe form of the disease.)  

 

21 minutes ago, Cookie Monster said:

The Brazilian one is immune to the current vaccines. The English and South African variants arent, but they have higher viral loads making them spread faster and it takes the edge off the vaccines.

It's not "immune". Current vaccines maybe can't prevent the infection with Brazilian strain, it's Moderna's vaccine I think that's showing the best results against it, but no vaccine can guarantee no infection with other strains either. They all do reduce the symptoms in case of infection. 

[stevewinn]

Not enough vaccines to stop third wave' of COVID in Europe, says German health minister

https://www.euronews.com/2021/03/19/not-enough-vaccines-to-stop-third-wave-of-covid-in-europe-says-german-health-minister

And yet Germany was one of the countries who at the very start where in talks with vaccine manufactures at the exact same time as the UK, the difference is the UK continued to press a head and place orders, Germany decided to stop, and instead of placing orders, it handed that responsibility over to the EU who then decided to 'negotiate' for a further month before placing any orders. there must be a political price to pay for the preventable deaths due to the incompetency of German politicians who clearly put the EU and 'one europe' before the health of their citizens. its a good job there's no federal elections in Germany this year,.....oh hang on..........

[Eldorado]

Several rallies have taken place in various German cities on Saturday to protest what some see as unnecessary restrictions imposed to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

One of the largest was organized in the central city of Kassel, where some 20,000 people were expected to attend, though police have estimated the actual attendance at 10,000.

Live footage from the inner city showed demonstrators facing off with a large contingent of police in riot gear. Many protesters were chanting "Wir sind das Volk" ("We are the people"), a slogan taken from the peaceful protests that led to the end of communist East Germany in 1989.

Deutsche Welle

[stevewinn]

Oh dear, the situation is getting worse. Scenes like this will spread throughout the EU, and just wait until we're in prime civil unrest season ie: the summer months. Not looking good. 

[Eldorado]

Protesters from all over Germany converged on the central city of Kassel for the march, which was organised by the "Querdenker" - "Lateral Thinkers" - online conspiracy movement.

"Bottles were thrown and there were attempts to break through barriers," police said on Twitter.

Protesters carried placards reading "No compulsory vaccination" and "Democracy will not tolerate censorship".

Marchers faced counter-protesters wearing face masks, one of whom held up a placard reading "Vaccinated".

Reuters report at MSN

[toast]

Freedom of speech isnt always understood correctly here.

 

Edited March 21, 2021 by toast