Festivities restrained by European lockdowns
German officials are suggesting that residents should forgo Christmas shopping and consider attending Christmas Mass online rather than in person. Meanwhile, its neighbor to the northwest, the Netherlands, has imposed its own strict new lockdown measures.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the governors of Germany’s 16 states agreed Sunday to tighten lockdown measures beginning Wednesday and running through at least Jan. 10.
Starting Wednesday, schools nationwide will be closed or will switch to homeschooling; most stores that do not sell food will be shuttered, as will businesses such as hairdressers. Restaurant takeout will still be permitted, but no eating or drinking can take place onsite.
“I wish and I hope that people will only buy what they really need, like groceries,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said. “The faster we get these infections under control, the better it is for everyone.”
With the exception of Christmas, the number of people allowed to meet indoors will remain restricted to five, not including children under 14. The sale of fireworks to celebrate New Year’s will also be banned, as will public outdoor gatherings on New Year’s Eve.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier appealed to Germans to support the new measures.
“The virus still has a tight grip on us,” he said. “The situation is bitterly serious: Thousands of death cases in one week and an infection scenario that threatens to spin out of control. There is no way we can avoid drastic measures.”
Merkel said existing restrictions imposed in November failed to significantly reduce the number of new infections. Germany has been recording steadily higher confirmed cases and deaths in recent weeks.
On Monday, the country’s central disease control center reported 16,362 new cases – about 4,000 cases more than a week before. The Robert Koch Institute reported 188 new deaths, which brought the overall death toll to 21,975.
Hospitals across the country had in recent weeks warned they were reaching their limits in caring for COVID-19 patients and that staffing on intensive care units was becoming a problem.
Expressing impatience, Health Minister Jens Spahn said in tweets Sunday that Germany, which has created more than 400 vaccination centers and has activated about 10,000 doctors and medical staff to start mass vaccinations as early as Tuesday, was hamstrung by the lack of regulatory approval.
It was especially galling because the vaccine developed by Germany’s BioNTech and American drugmaker Pfizer has been authorized for use in Britain, the United States, Canada and other countries. But it’s still waiting for approval by the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, and can therefore not be used in Germany yet or in any of the EU’s 27 nations.
The EMA has a Dec. 29 meeting on vaccines, but Spahn said the agency’s assessment and approval of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine should “take place as quickly as possible.”
Spahn’s ministry said Monday that Germany was ready to give 3 million to 4 million BioNTech vaccination doses in January and up to 11 million doses in the first quarter of 2021.
In the meantime, Michael Kretschmer, the governor of Saxony, told the German news agency DPA that this Christmas, for the first time in his life, he won’t be attending midnight Mass.
“I don’t need it for my belief, and I think it is right if all of us hold off during this sensitive time,” Kretschmer said. “Joseph and Mary were also on their own on the Holy Night.”
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte imposed a tough new five-week nationwide lockdown Monday, saying schools, nonessential shops, museums and gyms will close down at midnight until Jan. 19.
All nonessential shops are closed until Jan. 19, along with businesses such as salons, museums and theaters.
“We have to bite through this very sour apple before things get better,” a somber Rutte said in a televised address to the nation as the whistles of protesters could be heard outside. “The reality is that this is is not an innocent flu as some people – like the demonstrators outside – think, but a virus that can hit everybody hard.”
The government also urged people to receive a maximum of two guests over age 13 a day but relaxed the rule slightly for Dec. 24-26, saying three people can visit on those festive days.
As news of the looming lockdown leaked out before Rutte’s speech, many people keen to take their last chance at shopping flocked into city centers.
Bars and restaurants have been closed since mid-October, although many restaurants, cafes and coffee shops have offered takeout sales. The partial lockdown initially slowed high infection rates, but they have been rising again in recent days.