Germans mourn dead; split on lockdown rules
BERLIN — Germany paid tribute Sunday to the nearly 80,000 people it has lost to the coronavirus, even as the country argues about how to get a grip on another rise in infections.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier led a memorial event at Berlin’s Konzerthaus concert hall with Chancellor Angela Merkel and a few other top officials. They were joined by five relatives of people who died over the past year in placing a circle of candles in the mostly empty hall.
Steinmeier said that months of focusing on infection rates and other statistics were “understandable, but my impression is that we as a society don’t appreciate often enough that … people stand behind all the figures.”
“Their suffering and their death has often remained invisible in public,” he said.
Germany’s confirmed death toll from covid-19 stood at 79,914 on Sunday, an increase of 67 over the previous day. That is the fifth-highest total in Europe, after the U.K., Italy, Russia and France.
Germany had a comparatively small number of deaths in the pandemic’s first phase, but it saw much higher infection levels in the fall and winter. In January, more than 1,000 deaths per day were reported at times in the country of 83 million people.
Infections have increased again over the past two months as a more contagious coronavirus variant first detected in Britain took hold. Germany has reported 3.14 million cases since the pandemic began.
Anita Schedel, whose husband, Hannes, a doctor, died of covid-19 a year ago, called on Germans to keep sticking to rules meant to contain the virus.
“Even though corona fatigue is increasing after 12 months of the pandemic, I appeal to you all: Hang in there,” she said. “It comes down to every single person.”
Merkel is trying to get a bill through parliament that would mandate an “emergency brake” in areas where there are more than 100 weekly new cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The nationwide rate stood at 162 on Sunday.
It would require the closure of stores, cultural and sports facilities; limits on personal contacts; and nighttime curfews. The idea is to end the patchwork of measures that has characterized the pandemic response across Germany’s 16 states.
Merkel says the plan is needed to prevent the health care system from becoming overwhelmed, but state governments and others have found fault with it. At the same time, Germany’s vaccination campaign is beginning to gather pace after a much-criticized slow start.
“We are worn out by the burden of the pandemic and rubbed raw by the argument about the right way” to deal with it, Steinmeier said. “That’s another reason why we need a moment to pause, a moment beyond daily politics, a moment that allows us to look together at the human tragedy of the pandemic.”
FRENCH TOURISM
While Germany mourned the loss of people to the coronavirus, French President Emmanuel Macron said he foresees at least some tourists returning to Paris this summer if they have gotten vaccinated or have proof of testing negative for the coronavirus as France moves to progressively lift infection-control restrictions.
“We are building a certificate to facilitate travel after these restrictions between the different European countries with testing and vaccination,” Macron said in an interview that aired Sunday on the CBS News show “Face the Nation.”
Macron spoke as the French government is preparing to impose tough, new entry restrictions on travelers from four countries — Argentina, Chile, South Africa and Brazil — in hopes of keeping out especially contagious virus variants. The number of countries on the list could grow, France’s foreign minister said Saturday.
The restrictions include mandatory 10-day quarantines with police checks to ensure people arriving in France observe the requirement. Travelers from all four countries will be restricted to French nationals and their families, EU citizens and others with a permanent home in France.
France previously suspended all flights from Brazil. The suspension will be lifted Saturday, and the new restrictions are “progressively” put in place by then, the government said. The flight suspension for Brazil will be lifted followed by the “drastic measures” for entering France from all four countries, plus the French territory of Guiana, French Foreign Minister JeanYves Le Drian said.
Macron, summarizing the French approach, said “the plan is always to control the virus, to maximize the vaccination and to progressively lift the restrictions.”
The four countries “are the most dangerous in terms of the number of variants that exist and in the evolution of the pandemic in these countries,” Le Drian said Saturday on the France 3 television station.
Under the new restrictions, travelers must provide an address for where they plan to observe the 10-day confinement period and police will make visits and fine those who are found in violation, the government said.
Along with the mandatory quarantine, France is requiring more stringent testing for the coronavirus. Travelers must show proof of a negative PCR test taken less than 36 hours instead of 72 hours before they boarded a flight or a negative antigen test less than 24 hours.
France’s decision adds to a complex tangle of rules and policies about international travel that can vary widely from country to country and month to month.
Germany loosened some of its travel restrictions this past week, removing Britain, Ireland, Finland and Barbados from its list of at-risk areas, meaning that travelers from those countries no longer need to quarantine upon arrival. But Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia said that his country was in “no hurry” to reopen its borders.
JAPAN REQUESTS VACCINE
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga asked the U.S. drug maker Pfizer Inc. for additional supplies of the covid-19 vaccine to speed up his country’s inoculation drive, which lags behind many other nations.
Suga, after holding talks with President Joe Biden at the White House, wrapped up his Washington visit on Saturday with a phone call to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
Taro Kono, a Cabinet minister tasked with vaccinations, told a Japanese television talk show Sunday that the two sides have “practically reached an agreement” over the vaccines.
Suga requested Bourla provide additional supplies that would cover all eligible recipients by September, as well as to ensure the stable and prompt delivery of the ongoing vaccine shipments, Japanese officials said Sunday. No details were released.
According to the officials, Bourla told Suga that Pfizer planned to closely coordinate with the Japanese government to discuss the requests.
Japan, with its domestic vaccine development still in the early stages, has to rely on imports and has signed agreements with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna. The Pfizer vaccine is the only one Japan has approved so far.
Japan’s government says it has secured 314 million doses, enough to cover its entire population by the end of this year. That includes 144 million doses from Pfizer.
Inoculations started in mid-February and have covered less than 1% of the population. The slow process is hampered by the shortage of vaccines amid export controls by the European Union.
Kono has said the pace of the vaccine shipments is expected to pick up beginning in May. Addressing concerns about the shortage of medical workers administering the jabs, the government recently revised a law to recruit nurses who have retired or are on leave to temporarily help with the vaccinations.
The rise in cases led the government to issue an alert status for Tokyo and nine other urban prefectures. It has also fueled doubts about whether or how the July 23-Aug. 8 Tokyo Olympics can go ahead.
Japan added 4,532 cases on Saturday for a total of 525,218 since the pandemic began, with 9,584 deaths.