German science academy calls for ‘hard lockdown’ as coronavirus cases keep surging

LONDON (ICIS)–Germany’s Leopoldina national science academy on Tuesday called on the country’s federal and state governments to quickly implement a “hard lockdown” to stem the surge of coronavirus infections.

Despite the partial lockdown measures governments have put in place to contain the virus’ second wave, the number of new infections and deaths remained much too high for the health system to cope, the influential academy said in a statement.

In the past seven days alone, more people died of the virus than in traffic accidents in 2019, it said.

To halt the spread of the virus, Leopoldina urged that beginning 14 December governments suspend all schools and childcare centres, and from 24 December all shops – apart from supermarkets, groceries and pharmacies – should be closed until at least 10 January.

The experience from many other countries, for example Ireland or France, in dealing with the pandemic showed that quickly-implemented, rigorous measures over a short period of time could contribute to significantly lower the number of new infections, Leopoldina said.

The partial lockdown measures, agreed between the federal and state governments late October, took effect on 2 November and were recently extended to 10 January.

Meanwhile, Saxony, a state which has been hard hit by the pandemic’s second wave, implemented on Tuesday the sort of hard lockdown the academy is asking for.

The state governments have authority to go beyond the partial lockdown measures.

The country’s Robert Koch health institute (RKI) on Tuesday reported a total of 1,197,709 infections, up 14,054 from the day before, and a total of 19,342 deaths.

RKI’s 7-day incidence indicator, showing the number of new infections per 100,000 people over the past seven days, averaged 147 for the whole country.

In Saxony, the indicator was at 319.

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