Merkel Considers ‘Mega-Lockdown’ In Germany

MERKEL considers a ‘mega-lockdown’ amid fears of surging cases and the spread of the UK Covid variant

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seriously considering shutting down all public transport in the country in a new ‘mega-lockdown,’ according to German paper Bild, in an attempt to slow the spread of the UK Covid variant. Earlier in the week, Merkel warned Germans that much tougher restrictions would be required if they were not able to get the new coronavirus strain under control.

Speaking to Bild, she said: “If we cannot stop this British variant, we will have a 10 times higher incidence for Easter. We still need between eight and ten weeks of tough measures.”

Merkel’s stark warning comes as Germany’s registers ever higher Covid numbers; on Thursday, January 14, the country registered a record number of 1,244 deaths in a single 24-hour period.

Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute, said that numbers continue to soar as people aren’t following the letter of the law when it comes to lockdown and that, in fact, more people in Germany are travelling now than during the first wave of the pandemic.

‘To me, these measures we’re now taking aren’t a complete lockdown,’ said Wieler. ‘There are still too many exceptions and they aren’t being strictly implemented.’

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