Angela Merkel warns Germans that 'difficult months are ahead of us'

Several European nations have put into effect new measures and restrictions in an effort to curb the second wave of the coronavirus rapidly spreading across the continent, with cases skyrocketing. 

Much of Europe has introduced measures such as shutting or ordering early closing of bars, but now the surging infection rates are also testing the resolve of governments to keep schools and non-COVID medical care running. 

On Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned her citizens to expect ‘difficult months ahead’ as the country posted a new daily record of over 7,800 new coronavirus cases, and urged Germans to come together like they did in the spring to slow the spread of the coronavirus. 

‘Difficult months are ahead of us,’ she said in her weekly video podcast. ‘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.’

In Italy, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is expected to announce another set of measures on Sunday to counter the new wave of COVID-19 cases, his office said, with school closures being considered. The also country registered a new daily record of infections on Saturday. 

Europe surpassed 150,000 daily coronavirus cases on Friday – just a week after reporting 100,000 cases in one day for the first time since the start of the pandemic – with The United Kingdom, France, Russia, Netherlands, Germany and Spain accounting for about half of Europe’s new cases this week, according to a Reuters tally.

While Europe is reporting more daily cases than India, Brazil and the United States combined, the increase is partly explained by far more testing being done than during the first wave in the spring.

France, Germany and Italy all recorded a record number of new daily coronavirus cases on Saturday, with France reporting the highest seven-day average of new cases in Europe with 21,210 infections per day.

In the United Kingdom, a seven-day average of 16,228 new cases per day is being reported, and the country has introduced a tiered system of tougher restrictions in some areas. 

Germany, which was widely lauded for being able to slow the spread of the pandemic when it first broke out, has recently seen numbers climbing rapidly.

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

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.

In total, Germany has registered a total of 356,387 coronavirus cases, though a relatively low 9,767 deaths when compared with other major western European nations.

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

‘What brought us so well through the first half year of the pandemic?’ she asked. ‘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.’ 

‘We have to go further,’ Merkel said. ‘I appeal to you: meet with fewer people, either at home or outside. Please forsake any journey that is not absolutely essential, every party that is not absolutely essential. Stay at home, where at all possible.’ 

Merkel’s appeal came as President Frank-Walter Steinmeier went into quarantine after a bodyguard tested positive for coronavirus, his office said. Steinmeier, whose role is largely ceremonial, has also been tested and is awaiting the result. 

German leaders have been unable to agree on tougher measures to contain a second wave. Courts in several regions have, meanwhile, overturned bans on hotel stays for visitors from infection hotspots.

Politicians and health experts have appealed to the public to take voluntary measures over and above those already prescribed – including wearing masks, social distancing and hand washing. 

Merkel’s comments come the day after a Berlin court suspended an order for bars and restaurants to close from 11pm to 6am after finding that ‘it was not apparent’ such a measure could help fight coronavirus.

Ruling on a case brought by 11 restaurant owners, the administrative court noted that new infections in Germany currently stem from private gatherings of family and friends, at community facilities, meat-processing plants, religious gatherings or in connection with travel.

Closing food and drink establishments was therefore a ‘disproportionate encroachment on the freedom’ of the industry, the court ruled.

German authorities must now decide if they want to take the issue to a higher court to force bars and restaurants to close. 

Meanwhile, Europe surpassed 150,000 daily cases on Friday – just a week after reporting 100,000 cases in one day for the first time.

The unwanted milestone comes as new restrictions went into effect in several other European nations in an effort to staunch the resurgence of the pandemic. 

On Friday, the World Health Organisation warned that intensive care units in a number of European cities could reach maximum capacity in the coming weeks if the number of infections is not slowed. 

In Paris and eight other French cities, restaurants, bars, movie theatres and other establishments were being forced to close no later than 9pm to try to reduce contact among people.

The country is deploying 12,000 extra police officers to enforce the new rules as many restaurant owners bristle at the order. An earlier months-long lockdown devastated the sector.

‘I have the right to question the government’s approach, I think it’s a catastrophic measure for the industry,’ said Xavier Denamur, who owns Les Philosophes and several other bistros in Paris’s chic Le Marais district, saying that if nothing else, the curfew should be 11 p.m.

‘At least that would not destroy us,’ he said. ‘There’s no evidence that this difference of a couple of hours will have any effect on the virus circulating.’ 

On Saturday, the French health ministry also reported a record number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 32,427, after reporting 25,086 on Friday.

The total number of infections since the start of the year now stands at 867,197 while the total number of deaths stands at 33,392, up by 90 from Friday.

On Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is expected to announce another set of measures to counter the new wave of COVID-19 cases, his office said, after the country registered a new daily record in infections on Saturday.

Conte’s office said the government is discussing new restrictions with local and health authorities, aiming to stem contagion while limiting the impact on individuals and businesses.

The country is reportedly considering imposing a nationwide curfew and closing high schools, with officials set to meet on Saturday evening to discuss the measure, which would see cafes and restaurants close from 10pm. 

Cinemas could also be closed, and football matches – both professional and amateur – are expected to be banned under the measures, while only emergency and essential travel will be allowed. 

Italy was the first major European country to be hit by COVID-19 and had managed to get the outbreak under control by the summer thanks to a rigid two-month lockdown on business and people’s movement. But infections have soared in recent weeks.

The country posted 10,925 new infections on Saturday, according to the health ministry, its highest daily tally so far, up from the previous record of 10,010 cases posted on Friday.

Government ministers have ruled out a repeat of the lockdown imposed at the start of the crisis but officials have looked at a range of alternative measures to reduce social contact.

The head of the northwestern region of Liguria, Giovanni Toti, said on Facebook the government would urge schools to alternate between online and in-person lessons and tell companies to increase remote working.

The government has already toughened restrictions twice in 10 days, making wearing masks mandatory outside the home and imposing limitations on public gatherings, restaurants, sports, and some school activities, with schools in some areas already closing, sparking protests.

According to Italian newspapers, the new restrictions could also target non-essential activities including gyms, pools and amateur sporting events. 

In the Vatican, officials said someone who lives in the same Vatican hotel as Pope Francis tested positive for coronavirus, adding to the 11 cases of Covid-19 among the Swiss Guards who protect him. 

The hotel serves as a residence for Vatican-based priests as well as visiting clerics and lay people. Francis chose to live there permanently after his 2013 election, shunning the Apostolic Palace, because he said he needed to be around ordinary people. The hotel has a communal dining room and chapel where Francis celebrates Mass each morning.

The Vatican, a tiny city state in the center of Rome, has beefed up its anti-COVID-19 measures amid a resurgence of the outbreak in Italy. Protective masks are required indoors and out, but Francis has largely shunned them even when holding audiences with the public.

At 83 and with part of a lung removed when he was in his 20s due to illness, the pope would be at high-risk for COVID-19 complications.

Last week, the Vatican confirmed a cluster of 11 cases among the Swiss Guards who serve as ceremonial guards at papal Masses, guard the Vatican City gates and protect the pope. 

Italy’s northern Lombardy region, where the European coronavirus outbreak began in late February, has taken new measures to contain rebounding infections, limiting bar service and alcohol sales, banning contact sports and closing bingo parlours.

The regional government also called for high schools to adopt hybrid schedules, with students alternating in-person with online learning.

The measures were taken after Lombardy, Italy’s most populous region, once again become the most affected in the Covid-19 resurgence, adding more than 2,000 infections a day. Hospitals are coming under strain and intensive care units are filling up.

The new measures allow only table service for bars from 6pm, ban takeout alcohol sales from that time and prohibit all consumption of drink in public spaces, an effort to eliminate crowds from forming in piazzas with takeout drinks.

Italy’s other hardest-hit region, southern Campania, has taken similarly strict measures, including a shutdown of schools for two weeks. After parents protested, the regional governor backed off on Friday and allowed daycare centres to remain open.

In the capital, Rome, residents grumbled as numbers climbed, fearing a return to the strict country-wide restrictions that were imposed when the virus was spreading out of control.

‘The situation is critical thanks to the morons, because I call them morons, who have not respected the rules,’ said resident Mario Massenzi.

‘And if we fall back into the same situation as in March, we are finished.’ 

In Germany’s neighbouring Czech Republic, the number of new infections surpassed 10,000 for the first time, surging to 11,105 on Friday, the health ministry said.

That was almost 1,400 more than the previous record set a day earlier and the country has now registered a total of 160,112 cases, including 1,283 deaths.

After a series of new restrictive measures adopted by the government to slow down the surge, health minister Roman Prymula said he still expects a rise of those testing positive for about two weeks.

As a result, the authorities in the Czech Republic have asked the military to prepare a field hospital with 500 beds on the outskirts of Prague, as cases soar there. 

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of Austria and Belgium have both tested positive for coronavirus after attending a meeting with European Union colleagues this week.

Austria’s Alexander Schallenberg and Belgium’s Sophie Wilmes sat next to each other during a group breakfast at the meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Monday in Luxembourg, Austria’s Foreign Ministry said.

‘It is suspected that Schallenberg might have been infected at the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday,’ a spokeswoman for his ministry said in a statement, adding that he did not have symptoms and had been tested as a routine measure.

Wilmes said on Saturday she had tested positive, a day after going into self-isolation with suspected symptoms of COVID-19.

‘Contamination probably occurred within my family circle, given the precautions taken outside my home,’ she tweeted.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tested negative on Friday and had no close contact with Schallenberg, his ministry said, while Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde will work from home until she receives a negative test result, her department said.

Various other foreign ministers, including France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian and Arancha Gonzalez Laya of Spain, have tested negative in recent days. Greece’s Nikos Dendias ‘is very frequently tested for COVID-19, given his travels, and he is fine’, a Greek government source said.

Schallenberg’s only bilateral meeting in Luxembourg was with his Irish counterpart Simon Coveney but social distancing measures were implemented and Ireland has been informed of his positive test, the Austrian spokeswoman said.

Schallenberg also attended a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where participants wore face masks, she added. Cabinet ministers were tested on Saturday and all were negative, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s office said.

Austria’s cabinet had a scare less than two weeks ago when a close colleague of Kurz’s was confirmed to have the virus.

Amid anti-lockdown protests in Slovakia, Prime Minister Igor Matovic said on Saturday that the eurozone member will test every resident ages 10 and up for the coronavirus, amid an uptick in infections.

The country plans to acquire 13 million rapid antigen tests – enough to test each member of the population twice – and would establish 6,000 testing sites. 

‘Testing will be free of charge,’ he told reporters in the country of 5.4 million people, without specifying whether it will be mandatory or voluntary.

‘If we manage to pull this off, we can set an example for the entire world.’

A pilot run in certain areas is scheduled for next weekend, while the main testing will take place in late October and early November.

The government declared a state of emergency earlier this month in response to a surge in infections and deaths. It also introduced new restrictions this week.

Secondary schools have switched to remote learning, all mass events – including church services – are banned, fitness centres and pools are closed, restaurants can only serve clients outdoors.

On Saturday, the health ministry reported nearly 2,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases, bringing the total to more than 28,000.

Eleven infected individuals also died, putting the total death toll at 82.

On Saturday, around 500 people gathered outside the government building in downtown Bratislava to protest the latest anti-virus restrictions, despite a ban on gatherings of more than six people.

With many ignoring the mandatory face mask requirement, the crowd chanted ‘shame on you’ and ‘gestapo’ and called on Matovic to resign.

Some protesters threw rocks and glass bottles at the riot police, who for their part deployed a water cannon and tear gas against the crowd, according to video streams of the rally.