Angela Merkel defends lockdown extension, says mutations could destroy previous success

Defending an extension of COVID-19 lockdown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that mutations in the coronavirus could annihilate the country’s success. Pertaining to the increasing caseload of COVID-19, Germany federal government recently extended the nationwide lockdown till March 7, but with options of “gradually opening”, daycare centres and hairdressers earlier. Addressing lawmakers in Bundestag on February 11, Merkel asserted that they needed to be “extremely cautious” to not get into “exponential spiral growth rate” again.  

"New mutations, which are already present in Germany, may destroy any success already achieved by the monthslong lockdown," Merkel told Parliamentarians. 

The chancellor also defended the use of infection rates to determine when it is safe to ease the lockdown measures. "I really support the fact that when it comes to further openings and reopenings we've decided on the basis of these new mutations, not to give dates, but to give infection rates," she said. In addendum, the German leader acknowledged that the pandemic had caused major suffering but her aim was to slash out-of-control infection rates in the nation.

"This is a hard winter, both outside and when it comes to our lives. My target is that any new wave that might happen if the new virus strains become dominant, we mustn't give that room, we mustn't end up with another two-digit exponential growth."

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Boost in vaccine production

According to official reports, Germany has reported a total of 2,321,215 cases with 64,513 fatalities as of now and started vaccination late in December. Earlier this week, AstraZeneca revealed its plans to build a new Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing facility in partnership with IDT Biologika at the German firm’s Dessau site. This comes intending to speed up the production process. According to the reports by The Guardian, the two companies said that they were exploring options to ramp up the process in the second quarter as this will help in speeding up Europe’s vaccine rollout. 

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Earlier, Germany's health minister Jen Spahn said that he wants to secure new COVID-19 vaccines for the year 2022 and give a boost to the inoculation drive.  According to the reports by AP he said as of now it is not clear when the boost will be needed. This comes after the German government faced criticism for the sluggish start to the country's vaccination campaign.