Germany ready to extend deadlock, number of people infected with COVID-19 still high

Chancellor Angela Merkel and regional leaders are expected to agree to extend restrictions when they gather on Tuesday. It is still not clear how long the impasse will last, Reuters reports.

“Figures are still too high, so we'll have to extend restrictions”, Health Minister Jens Spahn told RTL television in an interview Saturday evening.

“The infection rate had to sit steadily”, Spahn said.

Germany imposed stricter restrictions before Christmas, including closing restaurants and most shops. However, infections continued to increase, and the death toll has reached over 1,000 in a few days.

Officials from Germany's 16 states agreed to a conference Saturday to extend restrictions, Frankfurter Allgemenine Sonntagszeitung reported.

But there were disagreements as to how long the measures could be maintained. Some more hit states demanded a three-week extension and that schools be kept closed, while others favoured a two-week extension.

The Robert Koch Institute, the agency that coordinats Germany's invisibility response, reported 10 thousand and 315 new cases confirmed today and 312 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 34,272.