Germany expected to extend lockdown, but states differ on schools

Berlin (dpa) – Days before Germany’s regional leaders are to discuss whether to extend the current lockdown, nationwide restrictions appear all but certain to continue, although some are still pushing for schools and childcare facilities to reopen.

The country’s federal states may diverge on this question, according to information received by dpa following a conference among the heads of the states’ chancelleries on Saturday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to meet the 16 state premiers and discuss the next steps on Tuesday.

Bavaria’s state premier Markus Soeder recently called for the lockdown to be extended by three weeks until the end of January, and warned of the dangers of a premature easing in comments to Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

The effects of Christmas and New Year’s on infection rates will only be clear in mid-January, Soeder said.

Likewise, Saxony’s premier Michael Kretschmer said he was in favour of extending the lockdown.

Germany managed to slow the rising rate of infection in December, but should not be lulled into a false sense of security, he told dpa.

Kretschmer said that experiences in other countries showed that easing measures too early led to an increase in cases.

He said he opposed switching back and forth between easing and restrictions, and that a lockdown in Saxony at least until the end of January was unavoidable.

In Thuringia, another eastern state with high case numbers, premier Bodo Ramelow also said the lockdown should run through until the end of the month.

He suggested tighter rules and has proposed a restriction on people’s movement to within 15 kilometres of their homes.

Other states with high infection rates also called for the lockdown to continue until the end of the month, while two with fewer cases suggested reconsidering the situation in two weeks.

Schools are currently closed and the state premiers held differing views on whether they should reopen.

While Bavaria’s Soeder said it would be irresponsible to reopen schools completely, Hamburg’s mayor called for data to justify the continued blanket closure, in comments to Welt Am Sonntag newspaper.

Ramelow, of Thuringia, said schools and nurseries would only reopen after February 1, with restrictions. Only students in years that are due to graduate, and teachers who have tested negative for the virus, should return to school in January, he said.

Some other states suggested that the winter break, which runs from February 1 and 15 in some places, could be brought forward.

Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek said a complete return to full attendance classes in all grades is “not conceivable” due to the infection situation.

“We have to be prepared for the situation at schools, like the situation overall, to remain difficult in the coming weeks,” she told the Funke media group newspapers on Monday.

The chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, also proposed the lockdown should be extended by four weeks. Even that might not be sufficient, he told Rheinische Post newspaper.

The states’ culture ministers are due to meet on Monday, one before the premiers.

Germany enacted sweeping closures and restrictions across the country in mid-December, tightening a partial lockdown initiated in early November that failed to reverse the country’s rising trend in infections.

The tougher lockdown is to stay in place until at least January 10.