Angela Merkel warns 'BRITISH virus' could cause Covid surge in Germany

Angela Merkel warns ‘if we do not stop this BRITISH virus’ Germany ‘will see TEN TIMES as many Covid-19 cases by Easter’

  • The Chancellor said she expects Germany’s current lockdown to last until April
  • Merkel said she needs up to 10 weeks to control the ‘British virus’ in the country
  • Donald Trump has been criticised for referring to Covid as the ‘China Virus’ 

Angela Merkel has warned Germany will see ten times as many Covid cases by Easter if they ‘don’t manage to stop this British virus’.

The Chancellor told lawmakers in her conservative party that she expects the latest lockdown to last until April to stop the spread of a more-infectious mutant strain that first emerged in the UK and has since spread to mainland Europe.

President Donald Trump has been branded ‘racist’ over his use of the terms China Virus and even Kung Flu to describe coronavirus – which is believed to have originated in Wuhan.

Angela Merkel has warned Germany will see ten times as many Covid cases by Easter if they ‘don’t manage to stop this British virus’

But Merkel did not hold back in calling out Britain as she discussed her latest measures in a meeting on Wednesday.

She said: ‘If we don’t manage to stop this British virus, then we will have 10 times the number of cases by Easter. We need eight to 10 more weeks of tough measures,’ Bild quoted Merkel as saying.

Three participants of the meeting told Reuters that Merkel had not explicitly spoken of an extension of the lockdown until April and that she had not warned of a tenfold increase in infection numbers in Germany.

‘Merkel said the coming eight to ten weeks would be very hard if the British variant spreads to Germany,’ one of the people said, adding the chancellor had referred to a tenfold surge in infection numbers in Ireland due to the new variant.

Germany was initially praised for having one of the best virus responses in the world, but has seen cases and deaths soar since lockdowns were relaxed. 

President Donald Trump has been questioned over his use of the terms China Virus and even Kung Flu to describe the pandemic

The soaring numbers forced Merkel to announce a tightening of measures ahead of Christmas, and she today warned that measures may have to get tighter still. 

Germany had tightened a national lockdown last week and extended it until the end of January amid fears that the more transmissible variant of the virus first discovered in Britain may put additional strain on struggling hospitals.

On Tuesday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases reported 12,802 new coronavirus cases. 

The Covid-19 death toll rose by 891 according to the RKI, bringing the overall total of deaths to 41,577. 

Europe’s largest economy aims to be able to limit the spread of the virus until enough of its population has been vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.

But so far, only 688,782 people have received the vaccine in Germany, less than one per cent of its population.

The premier of the southern state of Bavaria, Markus Soeder, called for a discussion on introducing obligatory vaccinations for nursing home staff as many of those working in homes did not plan to get jabs against COVID-19.

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