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Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor:
»Ladies and gentlemen, the current daily figures from the Robert Koch Institute are cause for hope for all of us, they also encourage us. Because slowly, at least at the moment, the number of new infections is falling. And you have to say, thank God we also have fewer people in the intensive care units for treatment. And all of this suggests that the tough cuts that people in Germany have taken on are beginning to pay off. And for that I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Nonetheless, the Prime Ministers and I have decided not to meet and discuss again on January 25, but rather today. And we have an important reason for that. Because all our efforts to contain the spread of the virus threatens a serious danger that we see more clearly today than we were able to on January 5th. And that's the mutation of the virus as it has emerged primarily, but not exclusively, in the UK and Ireland. Why is there such a danger? Because the epidemiological evidence to date suggests that this mutant virus is much more contagious and that it is a major cause of the huge surge in infections in both the UK and Ireland. This mutated virus has been detected in us. However, we do not know exactly how much, but individual cases are known. The scientists tell us that it is not yet dominant. In a sense, there is still time to contain all the danger. And of course it would be completely wrong to conclude from this that we then really would have all the time in the world to act. We must act now. And that is what moved me, but also all of us, during the deliberations today. Now is the time to prevent the threat posed by this mutant virus. So it's about prevention. And if the mutation had already spread in our country, then the number of infections - that's what we have seen in other countries - could increase explosively, with the result that our hospitals would then find themselves in a difficult situation to control . That is why we discussed again today and also decided on additional measures and restrictions to significantly accelerate the decline in the number of infections in Germany. It's all about this. We know that when the number of infections is low, the mutated virus has little chance of spreading any further. And that is why we are relying on the path that we currently have, falling infection numbers and want to accelerate this path through additional measures. So that means that we are doing this out of precautionary measures for our country, precautionary measures for the health of the citizens, but also out of precautionary measures for the economy and the world of work, which would then suffer very badly from an explosive increase.
Regarding the decisions in detail, I would like to emphasize here that we first of all agreed that we must extend all measures that were limited to 31 January to 14 February. That is, of course, a huge step and we also know what that means for the citizens, but also for others. Second, the type of private gatherings that are allowed remains, i.e. a household with another person who does not belong to the household. However, we would like to point out that it is best infectiologically if the number of people with whom you meet is small and as constant as possible, so that contacts and chains of infection cannot arise again and again, so to speak.
We are expanding the obligation to wear medical masks, i.e. surgical masks or masks of the quality FFP2 or KN95, N95, in order to have a higher protective effect. This applies to public transport and to shops. So it's a mandatory duty to wear it. And in general, the use of medical masks is also recommended in situations where closer or longer contact with other people is required.
Our aim is to reduce the number of contacts in local public transport so that the number of passengers drops significantly, so that the distances are generally maintained. And how do we want to achieve this goal? Firstly, through extensive use of home office options. Here we are far behind the values we had in March of last year. By doing everything we can to equalize the number of passengers in the rush hour of work and school traffic. And in addition, the obligation to wear medical masks. We struggled for a long time about what is necessary in the area of children and schools. We all know that it brings incredible limitations for the affected children, for the affected parents. But there are serious indications that the mutation B.1.1.7 of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is also spreading more strongly among children and adolescents than is the case with the previous virus. And we have to take these indications seriously. And that is why we refer once again to the decision of December 13, 2020. We have to extend it until February 14, 2020 and we have to press for a restrictive implementation of this decision. We agreed on this after a long discussion. After that, the schools will generally remain closed or the compulsory attendance will be suspended and the same procedure will be followed in day-care centers. We know what the educators are doing, and that's why we say again clearly that we thank them for what they are doing to help the children and young people in dealing with the pandemic. We'll come back to the elderly and nursing homes. In the last few days we have taken another practical step with the willingness of 10,000 Bundeswehr soldiers to help to carry out the testing. And what applies to old people and nursing homes also applies to facilities for people with disabilities. This is very important because they are legally anchored elsewhere and are often forgotten. We expressly do not want that. We say something about religious services in churches, synagogues and mosques and the gatherings of other faith communities. They are only permitted under strict conditions: keeping your distance, wearing a mask, also wearing a medical mask and prohibiting community singing. Meetings with more than ten participants must be reported to the responsible regulatory office at least two working days in advance, unless there are general agreements between the religious community and specific authorities. In addition to school and daycare, the central point in our discussions today was once again working from home. Here we are proceeding legally. We had already discussed the question on January 5th. The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs will first issue a regulation until March 15, according to which employers must allow employees to work from home wherever possible, provided that the activities allow this. And we assume that this will reduce contacts at work, but also on the way to work. And we ask the employees to actually use these offers. Wherever presence is still required, we naturally want the best possible protection for employees. Therefore also reduce the occupancy of rooms. Medical masks must be worn where sufficient clearance is not possible. And we ask employers to work towards the fact that the start and end times of work are varied in order to equalize the number of passengers in local public transport. So that we can advance digitization, which has a lot to do with the home office, special write-off options will be provided again.
I think this is a good move, also as an incentive. And it's worth it for the time to come. We point out that the incidence of 50, as we have set ourselves, will not be reached in many districts and that extensive local and regional measures that go beyond the general rules can therefore still be taken where this incidence has not yet been reached is achieved. So we are, so to speak, slowly moving in a convoy in the direction of 50 per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days as an incidence. We then talked for a long time about vaccination. Here we are of course dependent on the reliability of the producers. We have all now seen that Pfizer suddenly changed delivery. This has a major impact on the entire logistics of the countries. And we have agreed with each other that we want to do everything on our part to make a vaccination offer to every citizen by the end of the summer, but of course we are dependent on the fact that the vaccination doses actually want to be made available. But from our side we will do anything. And we have dealt with the sequencing, because we now expect to get more information about this mutated virus. And the federal government will present an initial evaluation by the beginning of February. The experts, especially Professor Drosten, told us yesterday that there is a good chance in two to three weeks of getting a better quantitative analysis here. We talked again about when we should agree on an opening strategy. That it is then of course necessary to regain and maintain control over the infection process, which means that we can guarantee complete contact follow-up. And that means that the health authorities have to be strengthened in terms of personnel and organization. And this time, which we now have until February 15, we must use to create the conditions for this. To this end, the SORMAS system is to be used and interfaces created so that nationwide communication and easier contact tracking is possible. One last word on my part on Europe. On Thursday we will have a European Council as a video conference, where we will deal with the subject of mutation in addition to vaccination. And it is perfectly clear, and it has also been said by many here today, by the Prime Ministers, that Germany is surrounded by many countries. And we can do what we want here, we will not be successful if others do not work on it synchronously. I know that neighboring countries like Denmark and the Netherlands have also dealt today with stepping up measures. But we have to make sure that all of our neighboring countries are really working in the same direction here. If that is not the case, we also have to take precautions when it comes to entry questions, because what the citizens are doing here and what we impose on them cannot, of course, be destroyed again, so to speak, by repeating the virus enter. And that is also a big issue and that calls for a uniform European approach. This applies not only to the EU, but also, for example, to neighboring countries such as Switzerland, which is not part of the European Union. Those were essentially our decisions. It took a long time. I think it was worth it. It is hard what we have to ask people again now.
But the precautionary principle has priority for us and we must now take that into account. And we have taken that into account. "
