Berlin, Dec 30: German officials made clear Wednesday that they won’t be able to relax lockdown restrictions in early January as the country recorded more than 1,000 deaths in one day for the first time.
“We have to lament 1,129 deaths this morning alone—1,129 families will be in mourning this new year,” Health Minister Jens Spahn said at a news conference.
“These figures show how brutally this virus is still striking. But the numbers of deaths and infections also show that we are a very long way from the normality we would like,” he added. “So in this situation, I don’t see how we can return to the pre-lockdown mode.”
“My expectation is that the lockdown will continue, because we must not take any further risks. The hospitals … are at their limits,” said the governor of Germany’s most populous state, Armin Laschet.
