Germany expected to extend isolation measures further

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of 16 countries will gather on 10 February to discuss the future strategy, as calls from businesses increase to ease isolation measures.

Merkel reportedly prefers to extend the measures, which are in force from November, and which have been toughed in mid-December.

“We would gain nothing if we removed the isolation before the time”, Merkel told members of her Democratic Party (CDU), the participants of this meeting have declared.

She is also believed to have given warnings that the infection rate may rise again if isolation is soon removed.

The government has set a goal that 50 cases of 100,000 people must be reported in order to remove isolation.

Currently, 73 people in 100,000 are reported in this country, nearly half less than in mid-January.

However, the mortality rate remains high, about 500 a day.

This debate comes as Europe continues to face difficulties for quick vaccines, in the absence of vaccines.

The easier - spreading varieties on the other hand threaten the small progress made against pandemic.

A host of studies have been found that a number of vaccines are less effective against the so - called South African variant of the Coronavirus.