Physician president warns of excessive demands

Ahead of new federal-lander consultations on how to proceed in the coronavirus crisis, the bundesarztekammer has warned against overtaxing citizens.

"I don't think we can continue what we're doing now for months," doctors' president klaus reinhardt told the editorial network deutschland. "The fears and worries were psychologically overstraining the people."He spoke out in favor of a clear time limit for the restrictions in everyday life and rejected an exit ban.

German chancellor angela merkel (CDU) plans to hold another conference call with the prime ministers of the federal states on sunday evening. The issue of whether and when to impose curfews was also discussed. Several heads of government had threatened on thursday with exit barriers. "It depends on the population whether we have to take stricter measures," baden-wurttemberg's minister president winfried kretschmann (grune) told SWR radio.

The background is that many bundesburgers do not heed the calls to keep their distance from fellow citizens. Merkel had recently urged for more discipline. Since thursday, people in the bavarian town of mitterteich and two other towns have only been allowed on the roads in exceptional cases. Freiburg also decided this evening to impose a curfew on larger groups, a so-called ban on entering public places.

Other countries, such as italy, spain and france, had already taken a more rigorous approach and imposed far-reaching exit bans. On thursday israel followed suit. Head of government benjamin netanyahu announced an initial one-week curfew. The goal is to save many lives, the 70-year-old said. "If anyone thinks i am exaggerating, they should look at the pictures from spain and italy. There, they no longer care about the sick, but transport the bodies in military vehicles."Spain ordered in the evening the closure of all hotels and pensions.

In germany, however, physician president reinhardt spoke out against curfews in the fight against the epidemic. This would create a spooky atmosphere "that would make people extremely afraid," he told RND. "This could also lead to a breakdown in the solidarity in society on which we are now urgently dependent." the virologist alexander kekule warned in the podcast "kekules corona-kompass" of MDR-"aktuell": "to lock up 95 percent of the population because of a small minority, the collateral damage is much too high."

The association of cities and municipalities made a similar statement. "The focus should always be on education and instruction, not coercion, which can hardly be controlled across the board anyway," said gerd landsberg, the group's managing director, to the newspapers of the funke mediengruppe (friday). A blanket curfew is one of the most serious encroachments on the liberties of every individual and is "not yet necessary".

The parliamentary secretary of state at the federal minister of the interior, stephan mayer (CSU), told the "passauer neue presse" (friday) that he does not currently see any compelling need for a nationwide exit ban.

North rhine-westphalia's prime minister, armin laschet (CDU), pointed out on ARD's "tagesthemen" this evening that a whole host of fundamental rights had already been curtailed "just like that" in recent days: "freedom of movement, the right to go to school, freedom of trade, freedom of religion."He stressed that not every country could introduce its own regulations. "We need a common strategy." each individual could contribute to the avoidance of curfews.

In the u.S., new york emerged as one of the cities hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis. Rapidly rising case numbers in view of significantly more tests carried out made the impact of the coronavirus crisis in the metropolis visible. From tuesday to thursday alone, the number of confirmed infections more than quadrupled to nearly 4,000 cases. The US department of defense also issued a worldwide travel warning for its citizens. Germany continues its airlift of tens of thousands of citizens from abroad.

The economy is also being braced for hard times. The federal cabinet wants to bring this monday further emergency measures on the way. The issues include a regulation on short-time allowances, the planned emergency fund for self-employed persons and a relaxation of insolvency law. In view of the existential difficulties faced by solo self-employed workers and micro-businesses, the federal government is planning an aid package worth over 40 billion euros. Even coarse groups fight for their existence. Many carmakers cut back production.

Increasingly, cultural events are also coming under fire. The film festival in cannes was cancelled in may, the metropolitan museum in new york will probably have to remain closed until july and the famous passion plays in oberammergau were also cancelled, the fear of survival is spreading in the cinema industry.

In germany, more than 15 countries have.000 infections with the new coronavirus are known, compared with just over 10 on wednesday.000. 44 infected with sars-cov-2 have died nationwide so far. Italy reported more deaths than china this evening, making it the country in the world with the most officially reported deaths. 3405 people infected with the pathogen have died so far, the country's civil defense agency reported.

Just under half of eligible voters are concerned that they or a family member will contract the novel coronavirus, according to a recent survey. According to the "deutschlandtrend" published on friday in the ARD "morgenmagazin", 29 percent are very worried and 19 percent very worried. That was almost twice as many as on 5. March. 65 percent are currently satisfied with the federal government's crisis management in the corona crisis. 33 percent, on the other hand, said they were dissatisfied.