Unvaccinated people in Germany will be banned from public events in areas with more than three patients per 100,000 inhabitants for the past seven days.
Only the vaccinated and those who have recovered from the coronavirus infection will be allowed to visit major events as well as recreational and sports facilities, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday evening.
At present, this applies to all states except Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland.
“The situation is very tragic and it is very important that action is taken quickly, that action is taken consistently and that it is better controlled,” Merkel said after crisis talks on Thursday with leaders of Germany’s 16 states.
To protect the most vulnerable, state leaders have also agreed to introduce vaccination requirements for health care workers and elderly care workers.
New record
The tightened restrictions come after a peak in recent weeks in the number of new coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. On Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute of the German infection control authority announced a new daily record of 65,371 infections.
The total number of deaths is close to 100,000, with 264 reported on Wednesday alone.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia also announced new restrictions on non-vaccinators on Thursday. From Monday, only those who have been vaccinated or recovered from Covid in the past six months can visit restaurants and events in the two countries.
“Lockdown on Unvaccinated”
– It’s a lockdown for the unvaccinated, says Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger.
Some exceptions are made for young people and for those who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons. Workplace testing requirements have also been reintroduced.
On Tuesday, more than 22,500 new cases were reported in the Czech Republic and more than 8,000 in Slovakia, new highs since the pandemic began.
In Slovakia, 45 percent of the total population has been vaccinated. In the Czech Republic 58 percent. It is comparable to the EU average of 65 percent.
The number of hospital admissions in the Czech Republic, about 4,500, corresponds to about half of the peaks in March.
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