Merkel, German governors to meet on virus measures

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold talks with the 16 state governors Wednesday in a quickly arranged meeting on the coronavirus pandemic, German news agency dpa reported.

The news agency reported that Merkel and the state governors will meet virtually at 11 a.m. (1000 GMT). The leaders had met for hours on Monday and into early Tuesday to discuss new measures on the pandemic as infection rates in the country are going up again.

Among the most important measures decided on was a five-day lockdown on Easter to get the numbers down again. However, that decision was met with lots of criticism and many questions on how extra holidays are legally possible.

Infection numbers in Germany have been rising again as the more contagious variant of the virus that was first detected in Britain has been spreading in the country.

Germany has registered more than 75,000 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic a year ago. The country’s disease control center also reported 15,815 new infection cases — a week ago there were 13,435 new cases.

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