Germany to consider easing coronavirus retail restrictions from April 20 - sources

[snoop1130]

Germany to consider easing coronavirus retail restrictions from April 20 - sources

By Andreas Rinke

 

A woman crosses the square to the main railway station, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Berlin, Germany, April 13, 2020. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

 

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany will consider easing restrictions on shops introduced last month to slow the spread of the coronavirus from April 20 but extend limits on movement until May 3, several participants in talks between regional and central government said.

 

Chancellor Angela Merkel is to hold talks with state premiers of Germany’s 16 states from 2 pm local time (1200 GMT) to try to agree on whether and how, to loosen some of the restrictions given some improvement in the situation.

 

Among the issues on the table are when schools, shops and factories may re-open, the option of making people wear protective face masks in public and possibly the merits of a mobile phone app to help trace new cases.

 

Infectious disease experts say that four weeks of keeping schools, factories and shops shut has brought progress but warn that the epidemic is not yet contained and there is a long way to go before normal life resumes in Europe’s biggest economy.

 

Companies and politicians are also worried about the economic impact of a long shutdown even though the government has tried to cushion the blow with a range of measures, including a 750-billion-euro ($822.23 billion) stimulus package.

 

The economy ministry said Germany entered a recession in March and the slowdown is likely to continue until the middle of the year.

 

“Collapsing global demand, interruption of supply chains, changes in consumer behaviour and uncertainty among investors are having massive impact on Germany,” it said.

 

It said even if social distancing measures were eased, economic activity would continue to be very subdued and would only pick up gradually.

 

Some 725,000 companies in Germany had applied for short-time work by April 13, the Labour Office said on Wednesday, a roughly 12% rise from the previous week, said the Labour Office.

 

Short-time work is a form of state aid that allows employers to switch employees to shorter working hours during an economic downturn to keep them on the payroll. It has been widely used by industry, including Germany’s car sector.

 

Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases have risen by 2,486 to 127,584, said the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases earlier, with a reported death toll of 3,254 people.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-15

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[tomacht8]

It is not the case that everyone who has the virus also dies.
Then how exactly does it look?
Death rate 3,254 to 127,584 infected = 2.55%
How much of the 3,254 would have died anyway without the virus?
What exactly is the age structure and the number of previous illnesses with the deceased?
Don't get me wrong, I also belong to the risk group: I am in my last quarter of my life plus previous illnesses through sex, drugs and rock'n roll.
How many people have the Wuhan virus and have not even noticed it?
There is a lot of testing in Germany.
The question is, to what extent is it proportionate to lock up the entire population?

A comparison to normal flu should also be allowed.

The influenza viruses and the diseases caused by them exist worldwide, however, in contrast to the other virus types (especially A), the influenza C and D viruses are only very rarely responsible for the virus flu. It is also a “sporadic” infection, ie outside of epidemics and pandemics, a very common infection: According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), 10 to 20% of the world's population is affected every year. Already at the age of six, almost all children in the Netherlands had infections with at least one of the virus subtypes. [1] In Germany at the end of the 2017/2018 season, in which the highest number of cases had been reported since 2001, a total of about 334,000 cases of outpatients with virus detection were reported. [2]

It is clear that the Wuhan virus is much more aggressive than the annual flu virus.
But from the lethality of e.g. Ebola virus is far away.
Well, it should be tried to flatten the "curves" so that the health system does not break apart.

The entire world population has learned: social distance, no mass events, hand disinfection, mask requirement, fever measurement, wash your hands often and think about what you touch.

Every year around 9 million people die of hunger worldwide,
But there is no worldwide lock down for this.
My question is, where is the proportionality?
Could the effects of the measures against the Wuhan virus lead to more deaths than the virus itself?

It is high time to think about how to achieve gradual "normality" again.