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Germany set to extend lockdown as Covid cases rise

GERMANY was set to tighten lockdown restrictions last night and extend them to April 18.

Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed the change in a meeting with the country’s 16 state governors, who are responsible for imposing and lifting restrictions.

Current measures are due to expire on March 28, but Germany is seeing a steady rise in infections and its vaccination rollout has proceeded more slowly than hoped.

Ms Merkel said the government needed to apply an “emergency brake” to relaxation plans set out three weeks ago, as the weekly infection rate has reached 107 per 100,000 people. The roadmap out of lockdown specified reimposition of heavier restrictions if rates rose above 100 per 100,000 people.

France has already reimposed sweeping restrictions, including curfews, on about a third of its population because of a new wave of coronavirus infections. The new Italian government of Mario Draghi is following a tiered system of restrictions depending on local infection rates but imposing a total lockdown over the Easter break.

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