3:01 p.m.: Government worried about increase in corona – “Good development is over”
Because of the spread of the more contagious coronavirus variant in Germany, the federal government has dampened hopes for further rapid lockdown openings. The proportion of the variant that first appeared in Great Britain is 20 to 25 percent, said government spokesman Steffen Seibert in Berlin. “You have to assume that this proportion will continue to increase,” said Seibert. This should be taken into account with careful opening steps: “Of course it has also become much more complicated with the advance of the mutations.”
Seibert emphasized: “The good development that has brought us the number of infections falling every day over a long period of time is over for the moment. The numbers are rising again. The proportion of more dangerous, because significantly more contagious, virus mutations is growing.” Seibert urged patience. Nobody wants to take back openings: “What we open, we want to hold out.” But it is now important to first look very carefully to what extent the school openings bring about changes in the infection process.
On March 3, the federal and state governments want to discuss the situation again. From March 7, shops should be able to reopen where there are regionally no more than 35 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and seven days for three days. On Monday, that seven-day incidence rose from 60.2 to 61.0.
