The “historic” crisis of the new coronavirus is set to continue in 2021, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Thursday, December 31, 2020 in her New Year’s greetings, even if the vaccine brings “hope”. “These days and weeks (…) are difficult times for our country. And that will last a long time, “said the Chancellor in her speech, the last, because she will complete her fourth and last term in the fall of 2021.” The winter remains difficult, “added the one who has led for 15 in Europe’s largest economy, again calling the pandemic a “historic crisis”.
Long considered a European “good student” in the management of the epidemic, Germany was hit hard by the second wave of the new coronavirus and had to decree a new partial confinement at least until January 10, 2021. “The challenges posed by the pandemic remain immense,” she insisted, thanking the vast majority of Germans for having respected the instructions for reducing contacts aimed at combating the spread of the virus.
More than 32,000 deaths across the Rhine
A total of 32,107 people have succumbed to the virus in Germany since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest figures from the Robert Koch health watch institute (RKI). The daily death toll for the first time exceeded one thousand on Wednesday, December 30, a record that the RKI also explained as a catch-up effect, regional health authorities having sent it incomplete data due to the Christmas holidays.
With regard to all the dead and their relatives, the Chancellor blasted the movement of corona-skeptics in the country, which has been illustrated by several large demonstrations partly accompanied by violence this year. “I can only imagine the bitterness felt by those who mourn a loved one because of the coronavirus, or those who continue to suffer from after-effects, when the existence of the virus is contested or denied by some”, she declared. “Conspiracy theories are not only false and dangerous, they are also cynical and cruel to these people,” she said.
The coming year is more than ever placed under the sign of hope, she said, however, in reference to the start of vaccinations in the country and in Europe. “In recent days, hope has had a face: that of the first vaccinated” in retirement homes and nursing staff. In her fifteen years at the head of the executive, “we have never, despite concerns, been so eager to enter a new year,” she said.
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