Angela Merkel urges Germans to come together to slow spread of Covid

17 October 2020, 14:44

Germany has been grappling with how to keep schools and businesses open
Germany has been grappling with how to keep schools and businesses open. Picture: PA

Angela Merkel has called on Germans to come together like they did in the spring to slow the spread of Covid-19 in the country.

During her weekly video podcast, the Chancellor said there were difficult months ahead.

Like most countries, Germany has been grappling with how to keep schools and businesses open, while trying to prevent people from coming into close contact with one another.

On Saturday, the country's disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, reported 7,830 cases overnight, a new record.

Germany has registered a total of 356,387 coronavirus cases, though a relatively low 9,767 deaths.

With the numbers again rising, however, Mrs Merkel urged Germans to avoid unnecessary travel, cancel parties and remain at home whenever it is possible.

She said: "Difficult months are ahead of us. How winter will be, how our Christmas will be - that will all be decided in these coming days and weeks, and it will be decided by our behaviour.

Read more: More than half of England living with heightened coronavirus restrictions

Professors Sikora and Pillay on possibility of second lockdown

"What brought us so well through the first half year of the pandemic?

"It was that we stood together and obeyed the rules out of consideration and common sense. This is the most effective remedy we currently have against the pandemic, and it is more necessary now than ever."

Earlier this week, the federal and state governments agreed to toughen mask-wearing rules and make bars close early in areas where infections are high.

Germany has confirmed more than 7,000 new coronavirus infections for the first time, its second consecutive daily record.

Read more: No 10 urged to restart Greater Manchester coronavirus lockdown talks

Listen & subscribe: Global Player | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify

The Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national disease control centre, said early on Friday that 7,334 new cases were confirmed in the previous 24 hours.

That compares with 6,638 a day earlier.

Until this week, Germany's highest recorded figure was nearly 6,300 in late March, though testing has expanded vastly since then.

Figures tend to peak around the end of the week, but the latest reading underlines a sharp upward trend in recent weeks.

In Italy, Campania, which includes Naples, closed schools until the end of the month as the number of infections there surged above 1,000.

Italian health officials have declared the country in an "acute phase" after the country set records for new daily cases higher than even during the March-April peak, when the death toll surged well over 900 in one 24-hour period.

The death toll on Thursday rose to 83, one-third of those in Lombardy, after days hovering at half that nationally.

More Latest News

See more More Latest News

Phoenix Spencer-Horn

Killer admits murdering girlfriend before decapitating and trying to dismember her in sick cover-up attempt

Police have cordoned off Millbank Lane, Thornaby, after kids found bullets in the ground.

Police launch probe after children find 'bag of bullets' and firearm magazine while playing in field

Teenage boy fixing an L plate to the back of a Renault Clio before a driving lesson.

Driving test backlog reaches eye-watering high of over 630,000

Poundland has announced plans to close 68 stores and two UK warehouses

Poundland announces plans to close 68 stores and two UK warehouses after being 'sold for £1'

Leroy Mitchell

Man, 32, charged with murder after father-of-three shot dead outside silent disco

Donald Trump said he wants Iran "giving up entirely" on nuclear weapons

Donald Trump declares he wants a 'complete end' to Iran’s nuclear weapons programme

The incident reportedly occurred on Pembury Road, Kent.

Woman ‘repeatedly punched in head and pushed out of speeding van’ as police launch manhunt for suspect

Exclusive
c

Beach-goers urged to watch out for suspicious boats smuggling cocaine from the Channel

Breaking
Emergency services near to the scene of a suspected gas explosion which tore through a terrace house in the early hours of the morning in Stoke Newington.

Woman found knifed to death in London home after police rushed to reports of gas explosion

he Dongfeng 41, a Chinese nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile

China is growing its nuclear weapons stockpile faster than any other country, report warns

Elon Musk in the White House's Oval Office

Elon Musk shares details of drugs test after bombshell report claims he took 'cocktail of substances' as head of DOGE

The Air India 787 Dreamliner was due to leave Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 1.10pm local time (8.40am UK time)

Air India flight to London cancelled days after Dreamliner disaster killed at least 270

Kim Woodburn, in 3th place, leaves the Celebrity Big Brother house on February 3, 2017

How Clean is Your House? star Kim Woodburn dies aged 83 after a short illness as tributes pour in

Food distributed to Palestinians in Gaza amid Israeli attacks

Israeli tank shelling on crowds waiting for aid kills 45 Palestinians in Khan Younis

Pilots said they heard a “loud thud” immediately before the left engine lost power, the DGCA’s investigation report claimed

Air India Dreamliner identical to doomed flight AI171 'suffered engine failure before making emergency landing' in 2023

Rescue workers clear the rubble of a multi-storey residential house destroyed by a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine

At least 14, including US citizen, dead as Russia launches massive wave of drone and missile strikes at Kyiv