As the number of coronavirus patients in Germany rose to 1,295 this morning (up to date as of midday local time), and after the first two deaths in the country of a 78-year-old and an 89-year-old announced yesterday, Jens Spahn, the health minister, urged people to show solidarity towards each other despite the restrictions to their daily lives.
“We will conquer this situation, by helping each other, working together and having trust in each other even when we are in a state of stress,” he wrote in a guest commentary for Germany’s widest read newspaper, the tabloid Bild. “We can do it, and best of all is if we do it together,” he added.
The peak of the epidemic in Germany has not yet been reached, he said. “We are expecting a rise in the number of infections, and we will continue to face further restrictions in our daily lives.” Having recommended at the weekend, like the French authorities, that all gatherings of 1,000 people or more should be cancelled, Spahn said: “It’s clear, our safety is more important than anything else, even economic interests. But restricting public life is no easy decision. Openness belongs to democracy, and it should remain that way. Which is why we must proceed with caution and calm.”
Lothar Wieler, the president of the Robert Koch Institute, the leading health and safety advisory body in Germany, has called on the country’s community leaders and hospitals to activate their emergency plans and start preparing for an epidemic. “The situation is serious,” Wieler said.
Hospitals should increase the amount of emergency beds as far as possible, and have sufficient breathing apparatus to hand, he said. They need to ensure that patients with suspected coronavirus can be admitted and cared for in a separate part of the hospital to other patients and to assign a specific section of the medical staff to solely treat coronavirus patients.
The Marshall Islands and Samoa are among several countries to have banned German citizens or people who have been in Germany recently, while Liberia, Uganda and Russia have said travellers from Germany have to spend two weeks in quarantine – in the case of Liberia, in a state-run institution – before they are allowed to stay.
Meanwhile, a much-anticipated Bundesliga football match between Borussia Mönchengladbach and FC1 Köln, rescheduled because of the recent cyclone Sabine, is to go ahead on Wednesday evening, but without any spectators, in line with restrictions which also face Champions League and Europe League matches, the German football federation (DFL) announced.