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Germany sees record death toll on first day of new lockdown measures

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Germany sees record death toll on first day of new lockdown measures
An empty Covid-19 intensive station at a hospital in Recklinghausen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Photo: DPA

Germany registered a record number of deaths from Covid-19 on Wednesday, the first day of a new partial lockdown to try and curb a surge in infections.

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A total of 952 people died in the previous 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch Institute disease control centre.

It said 27,728 new coronavirus cases were registered, a figure close to the daily record of infections reported on Friday.

READ ALSO: Covid-19 in Germany worse than ever 'due to carelessness', says public health boss

The previous daily record for fatalities was also reached Friday, when almost 600 people were reported to have died as the number of those in intensive care in the country reached alarming levels.

Some 83 percent of intensive care beds in hospitals were occupied on Wednesday, the Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) said.

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The latest figures come as a new partial lockdown was imposed, with non-essential shops and schools closed in a bid to halt an "exponential growth" in infections.

The restrictions will apply until January 10, with companies also urged to allow employees to work from home or to offer extended company holiday.

The new measures were agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel with regional leaders of Germany's 16 states on Sunday.

Europe's largest economy had coped relatively well with the first wave in the spring but it has struggled to contain a resurgence in recent months.

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Anonymous 2020/12/18 00:51
I think the increase is as a result of the population who rushed to the shop on Monday and Tuesday to buy clothes, shoes, etc in preparation for Christmas. Everywhere was chuck ed up.
Anonymous 2020/12/17 04:55
Nabarro, who was appointed in February as one of six special envoys tasked to deal with the coronavirus response, warned that national lockdowns are “a very extreme restriction on economic and social life” that temporarily “freezes the virus in place.”<br />“The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it.”<br />This is the direct quote.WHO says lockdowns should only be used as a last resort. <br />https://planetfreewill.news/who-special-envoy-on-covid-reiterates-caution-against-lockdowns-as-primary-virus-plan/<br />“You don’t want to use those as your primary, and I stress that, primary, means of containment. Because in the end living with the virus as a constant threat means maintaining the capacity to find people with the disease and isolating them,” Nabarro said.
Anonymous 2020/12/16 13:43
The high number of death indicates the soft lockdown doesn't work as expected. So there comes a hard lockdown.<br /><br />Regarding that the WHO recommended against lock-downs, please check: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/10/13/who-warning-about-covid-19-coronavirus-lockdowns-is-taken-out-of-context/
Anonymous 2020/12/16 11:33
Maybe that is an indicator that the lock-downs do more harm than good. The WHO also recommended against lock-downs, why are will still doing it?

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