Germany nears lockdown as retailers, bars, churches shut
18 March, 2020
German shops will close, restaurants cut their opening time and churches and mosques will stand empty under drastic steps announced about Monday to gradual the pass on of the coronavirus.
The procedures took Germany a step closer to a total lockdown very similar to those implemented in Italy and Spain, where many people have been confined with their homes.
Announcing the moves - particularly sensitive in a nation that defends their civil liberties assiduously because of its memories of totalitarian rule beneath the Nazis and, in East Germany, the Communists - Chancellor Angela Merkel asked designed for cooperation.
“The better everyone sticks to these rules, the quicker we’ll get through this phase,” she told a news conference. “And I think we all need to get through this as fast as possible.”
But the virus is also taking its toll on the market, Europe’s biggest, ending hopes of a first-quarter upswing.
Under suggestions agreed by the federal and state governments, pubs, clubs, theaters, zoos and even brothels need to close. Gatherings in churches, mosques and synagogues and in sports activities and cultural clubs must also cease.
Grocery stores, pharmacies, banks and delivery products and services can remain open, but restaurants may open only between 6 a good.m. and 6 p.m. Schools have been closed.
Merkel said it was essential to slow the spread of the virus so that the amount of simultaneous extreme cases never exceeded the capability of the health-care program.
“There is no sense in closing a school and have the same gathering of children move to the playground instead,” she said. “You want to avoid having these areas of close contact.”
Asked in the event the crisis would cause rescue programs meant for banks, companies and other European Union member states, Merkel stated Berlin was ready to help, but that it had been too early to speak about concrete steps.
The federal government now expects the economy to shrink this year, two senior officials said, depressing tax revenues and requiring higher state spending.
Source: the-japan-news.com
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