germany is extending its coronavirus
shutdown by three weeks until march the
28th but some restrictions will be eased
to allow non-essential stores and other
businesses to reopen in areas with
relatively low infection rates
now chancellor mackel announced the plan
after talks with state leaders continued
well into the night
they agreed new measures intended to
offer a glimmer of hope that life will
soon return
to some kind of normal
the talks between regional leaders and
chancellor angela merkel stretched into
the night
with state premiers having to negotiate
a number of details
but when merkel finally emerged she had
an optimistic message for the german
public
despite announcing the lockdown's
extension till later this month
we are at the threshold of a new phase
of the pandemic
it's a phase which we can't go into
carelessly
but i think it's important to say with
justified hope
the leaders agreed to a step-by-step
reopening strategy
for businesses schools and public spaces
with
emergency brakes built in each new step
will require infection rates to remain
low
less than 50 cases per 100 000 people
over a seven day period if infection
numbers begin to spike then the measures
will quickly be reversed
however contact restrictions between
households
will be slightly eased as of next week
the reopening strategy also focuses on
vaccinations and mass testing
jabs will soon be available at many
family doctors to try and boost
vaccination numbers
and starting next monday people in
germany will get access to one free
rapid test a week
merkel said the regional leaders
understood the public's desire for
normalcy
but stressed optimism shouldn't come
without caution
it's our job now to make sure that the
next steps we take
are smart ones these steps should allow
us to open up a bit more
but at the same time they shouldn't set
us back months in this pandemic
with elections looming and public
pressure growing
regional leaders want to curb
restrictions quickly
but they also want to avoid having to
potentially return
to yet another lockdown
and political correspondent nina hasa is
standing by nina
some commentators are calling this a
change in strategy
is it
well if you look at the situation
germany has been
in lockdown since mid-december since
before christmas
and the goal was always of course to
bring public life to a standstill so
that you could bring down the number of
new
infections so that the health system can
cope because we did have an extremely
difficult
situation in the hospitals around
christmas and that
strategy did seem to work the numbers
went down but then the new variant
started arriving and so germany stayed
in lockdown
but the numbers have started rising
slowly and so
impatience in the population has been
growing
over the last few weeks and so angela
merkel has had to concede
that now the pressure is so high to open
up and to change that strategy because
you can't have that solution of only
ever extending lockdowns again
if that because strategy is clearly
coming to an
end and so many of the state leaders
insisted that they
think that the health system can still
cope even if we have slightly higher
numbers than
the ones that merkel wants um because we
just need to put more effort into
speeding up the vaccination process
and into being really quick when it
comes to the national testing strategy
and tell us you know what this is now
going to mean in practical terms when it
comes to day-to-day life
well if you look at the graph it is very
complicated
so essentially as a normal german or as
a person living in germany you will need
to know where your local
area stands in terms of numbers of new
infections and that
depending on that number your regional
government can then make decisions over
the next few weeks
which areas can open at which speed
so if you take the example of berlin
where we are here for example and i will
have to look at my paper because it is
extremely difficult
so berlin is at the moment at a number
that is
a hundred new lower than 100 new
infections per 100
000 people in one week and that means
that from next week onwards
our regional government can open museums
for example
and then we need to wait for two weeks
until the government here in berlin can
decide
on the next step because they of course
need to check whether that
decision has infected the new infection
numbers
and so if that number stays under 100
then berlin can open theaters and allow
for outdoor dining
if people can provide a negative test
result
wait another two weeks and we're still
below 100
assuming then berlin can open shops with
only a limited
number of people inside so it is very
complicated you will need to look at
your figures
the vaccination rollout we have to say
has been bumpy to put it mildly uh tell
us
whether or not you know uh merkel has
discussed this
um and and also uh the rapid test
roll out how is that supposed to go
well i have to say that our health
minister yen span
is not looking good the opposition
parties are already calling for him to
resign
because the vaccination process you said
it um has been extremely sluggish
and also when it comes to testing now
the government has promised that
germans will be getting a rapid test per
week from next week onwards
but if you look at our neighboring
country austria for example they've been
giving out these tests for free to the
population
since mid-december and this is when they
were approved so here in germany
it's a very complicated mix of
responsibilities
but it is going to be very very crucial
for you and span to speed up the process
and to
come up with a proper national testing
strategy
so that it doesn't look as bad as it did
in the vaccine rollout
dw's nina hasa in berlin thank you