German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her successor, Olaf Scholz, have agreed with German leaders to ban unvaccinated people from accessing most shops, except those selling basic necessities such as pharmacies, bakeries and grocery stores.
Merkel and Scholz also want parliament to approve mandatory vaccination against Covid-19.
Hoping to avoid quarantine regimes that would once again severely damage the economy, German leaders have decided to keep shops and businesses open to 69% of the country’s population who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, as well as those who can prove a Covid-19 outbreak.
“The situation is very serious,” Merkel told a news conference. “The number of infections has stabilized, but at too high a level,” Merkel said.
She said the ethics committee would be asked to draft a law on the introduction of compulsory vaccination, which would be discussed and voted on in the Bundestag in February at the latest.
Authorities fear the fourth wave of Covid-19 will lead to hospital overcrowding. Today, more than 73,000 new cases of Covid-19 and 388 deaths have been reported in Germany.
Experts attribute the new virus outbreak to the fact that a significant portion of the public does not want to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and have blamed politicians for delaying the spread of the virus.
In Germany, vaccination coverage is close to 70%, almost close to the EU average (EU), but lower than in countries such as Portugal and Ireland.
In Germany, the seven-day cumulative number of infections per 100,000 population fell for the third day in a row to 439.2 today.
Merkel, who called the restrictions a necessary expression of national solidarity, said nightclubs would be closed, no more than 50 people would be allowed to gather indoors and other restrictions would be introduced in regions where the seven-day cumulative infection rate would reach 350 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Restricting the spread of the coronavirus will be a top priority for the next German chancellor, Scholz, whose Social Democrats have formed a coalition with the Greens and the Liberal Democrats (FDP).
The vote of the Bundestag on the approval of Scholz as Chancellor is expected on December 8.
Scholz said Germany will try to use another 30 million doses of Covid-19 by Christmas.
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