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Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet
Photo: Roberto Pfeil / dpa
As a consequence of the increasing number of corona cases, the North Rhine-Westphalian state government wants to limit the number of participants at celebrations.
Nationwide there should be a limit of 50 participants in private celebrations in public space, announced Prime Minister Armin Laschet after a special session of the state cabinet.
The goal must be to keep schools and day-care centers as well as the economy open.
"For that you have to make sacrifices at certain private celebrations," Laschet emphasized.
He also appealed to citizens to refrain from celebrating in confined spaces, even in private homes.
Several cities in the most populous state had recently exceeded the threshold of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants, including Cologne and Essen.
For such hot spots, there should be nationwide binding rules in the future, said Laschet.
These concern, among other things, the number of people from several households who are allowed to meet in public spaces, as well as restrictions on opening times in restaurants.
"We are now creating uniformity and clarity," said Laschet: "The rules must remain understandable for the citizens."
There must also be more uniform rules nationwide in the Corona crisis, said Laschet.
This will also be a topic at the meeting of the Prime Ministers with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday.
He is confident that it will be possible to come up with uniform nationwide rules, for example on fines: "All 16 countries are struggling almost equally with the same problems."
"Solidarity duty of the young too"
In addition, NRW's Prime Minister swore the citizens with urgent words to comply with the Corona rules.
"Many have become too frivolous. And every single one of them helps us fight the virus," said Laschet.
The Prime Minister made young people particularly responsible.
"It is also a duty of solidarity for young people not to just think about themselves," warned Laschet.
Because they could easily infect their parents and grandparents, who usually struggle with the consequences of Covid 19 disease much more than the boys themselves.
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