Ahead because with low temperatures this virus responds differently than what is on it ive just come out of the corona cabinet where we have again had a look at the situation we have in a moment we are concerned by that 12700 new cases reported by the robert carr institute which is traveling in 2 weeks 5 times the amount it made october. So this is exponential growth and we are heading straight for an acute emergency in our hospitals if we do not do anything and we see this when we look at the number of covered 1000 patients in our i. C. U. Nurse again theres been a doubling the rate from 1030 beds on the 22nd of october weve covered patients to 2000. 61 ice you bet occupied by 1000 patients on the 1st of november and we know that the number of patients in our i. C. U. Is always. Downstream its a bit later so that means that the cases who are reported now as in fact it will only end up in our i. C. U. Patients is just 6 in 2 weeks it takes a while for new cases to be in i. C. U. So what were seeing here in terms of the number of i. C. U. Patients are patients who got infected 10 or 14 days ago and because weve had such an intense rise of new cases we will see this reflected in i. C. U. Beds too and as we come closer and closer to the threshold of response capacity of our Public Health systems no government can accept this without doing anything and that i cannot neither and neither can the German Government so we cannot allow. This fast and spread of the virus or to overstretch our hospitals even the current figures mean it is no longer possible to trace the origins of infection of each new infected patient which means that many people. Wandering around our streets infected especially if they have no symptoms they have no warning that they have the infection which means they are spreading it to other people and because this development is the way it is because so many Public Health offices can no longer trace the origin we find ourselves in a situation in which in 75 percent of the cases 3 quarters of the new cases we cannot trace the origin of the infection so we dont know how or where these people got infected and this is why we have to return to a situation in which the Public Health offices can trace its contacts otherwise exponential growth will continue. It and as an incidence of 150 or 201 minister polity this is not possible or one germinate we have an average incidence of 127. 8 new infections or 100000 people in 7 days we need to come down to a number of 50 per 100000 people per 7 days which is the level at which the Public Health offices can more or less trace the origins of the infection so thats what were trying to do put lives measures in place in order to get back there i know these are tough measures but all the same this is not the time to. Vary the things to respond to various different differences in various areas or just refer to it social distancing and hygiene that would only be half hearted and this is why we have put this comprehensive restrictions in place because its always about the fact that we know that theres a close tie between the number of contacts and the number of new infections so that means we must reduce contact wherever we can on the other people so 1st of all that means working from home wherever this is possible. But these measures will also deeply affect our per private lives no holidays no trips to rate relations and this absolute mess or no parties or celebrations our leisure time will change we are closing hospitality institutions as few people as possible should meet at home meeting and public should be limited to 2 households should these households be larger than more than 5 people this is restricted once again to 10 people. At most but the most important thing is people from 2 different houses that means for 4 weeks we must do without many of the things that make our lives pleasant we know this both the straight and the state premiers and we. In the National Government for a long time we weighed out whether or not there might be an easier path a milder one we did not see it and so with heavy hearts we decided because these measures must be undertaken we believe they must we believe they are appropriate to reach our goals they are necessary to reduce contacts the scientific organizations advocate exactly this we saw out there the use and massive reduction of contacts means less opportunities for the virus to spread and if we do this consistently for one month it can really be a Circuit Breaker and theres the 2nd wave and of course these measures came about because we went away and thought about what the most important thing is for our country to function and we believe this is maintaining an infrastructure in the Health Care Sector and and in terms of nursing care and hospitals that is also keeping our economy ticking over as much as possible and having learned from the 1st wave of the pandemic we also felt it was crucial that we keep our schools and Daycare Centers open we said again that they must be closed last and opened 1st and it was the other way around in the last wave and this is why weve made a conscious decision to keep schools and Daycare Centers open but if all of these contacts are essential others must be restricted. And this huge effort and what it delivers in the month of november doesnt just depend on the rules we put in place it depends on whether people adhere to them because much of these rules affect our private lives because many people will be making very personal decisions about who theyre going to meet and here theyre not going to mate bearing this in mind we rely on. The acceptance and support of the people in this country to adhere to these rules so its down to every single one of us to make this november our success is to turn. This virus around this pandemic now around so that we can once again trace the origins of contacts and if we manage to reduce the spread of the virus in the face of the spread of the virus then we will achieve bearable december not actually under cover 19 rules regulations as were familiar with over the last few months but with more latitude now in the kona cabinet we also talked about the economic assistance that will be given to companies who are required to. Close and finance minister and economics minister will free up to 10000000000 euros whether its in hospitality or jim. Will be left alone with their drop in income i know that many restaurants and many businesses have undertaken huge efforts to be able to work under the conditions the pandemic and these are precautions that will be very important when we go back to a bit of a looser restrictions state but at the moment because of the 75 percent of new infections that we cannot trace the origin of and because of the absolute need to reduce contacts these hygiene rules and regulations are simply not enough to slow the spread of infection and we know that those who work in the cultural sector people who can no longer perform again cannot longer show their exhibitions they are suffering particularly and they are important for all of us they are sacrificing just as the bars clubs and restaurants the cultural scene as well but a great deal of commitment into looking at ways at which they could continue to work in the. And i michael we know that the culture and the cultural sector is crucial for our lives here and important for a free society as well which is why does it all the more painful for me as well it is painful that we have to reduce contact here as well for the month of november the need so its not about the hygiene concept for this or that institution here its about ensuring that all of the contacts in our society we achieve ever duction are scientists have said we need to have a reduction of 75 percent of all of our contacts that means from 4 contacts with other people that we would normally have we must avoid 3 and allow one and if we think about the fact that schools and nurseries is day open with over 10000000 children going to them then we have to balance this out actually reducing other contacts in conclusion id like to Say Something about the corona warning app which is being used by 21500000 people in this country we have heard from the labs we know that 152 of 164 have been connected to the app this warning app has alerted 2750000 test results. And. 38000 users have passed on their positive kovan 1000 tests to all of the people that they have been in touch with using the app unfortunately only 60 percent positive tests have passed this information on into the app so that everyone theyve been in touch with is warranted we need to get better and not we want to encourage more people if they do get a positive coverage 1000 test to alert. People they have been in touch with anonymously of course by the. Unlike the case in spring there is light at the end of the tunnel we have better and more percent protective. It quit meant we have an anti jennas fast test as well as the usual tests to protect vulnerable groups of society who are particularly at risk for the cover 19 infections we have the better drugs we havent yet got a cure but we have got better drugs to treat severe cases and. Vaccines are on the horizon in the next months we hope that they will be approved but it remains the case that as long as the vaccines are only in their inception. And we havent got any. Drugs to actually cure theres we must live with this pandemic for the next of probably 4 months to ensure we can do everything we can to track the origin of each infection otherwise we will exceed the response capacity of our Public Health system which we must avoid if at all possible thank you very much we have a number of questions here from the room as well as some questions that colleagues have put to us digitally i will trying to. Alternate between the 2 and this is true for colleagues in the room as well as those of you who are digital please be brief and ask one question maybe you can ask one further question of clarification but please dont have a long lead into your question so that as many colleagues as possible can ask the question and so thank you to our colleagues for sticking to our urgent request for you to wear a mask while youre in the hall ideally when you ask a question as well heres a question from tear gas from deutschland from grady who says why did you only start the lockdown today and not over the weekend because everybody went out to restaurants pubs swimming pools that cetera is not going to make it even worse and harder to contain certainly we had to weigh this up and decide when we are going to do the. On the one hand we do see this phenomena that certain institutions had everyone visiting him quickly before they close. But on the other hand in recent days we have seen less mobility so its not the case that everyone went out and partied quickly before the lockdown. And also we are weighing up the idea that the federal states had to put the ordinances in place debate them in some cases in their state assemblies and we had to give the institutions a certain amount of time to apply for a short time work etc and compensation for that if you need to close the restaurant there are an awful lot of people whose jobs are affected so those are the reasons why we decided to enforce this from today. Then we got mr men. Who have been chancellor. We are seeing how theres been an effort made to combat the pandemic. And we know in the Hospitality Industry have really suffered. And many who close their restaurants are hoping that in a month they will be able to open them properly. Do you expect that to be the case. If they cant open their restaurants in december the assistance that your friends go to help them is that the case. Well i dont want to speculate whats going to happen on the 30th of november and i promise anything for december because 1st of all were going to be meeting with the straight state primaries on the 16th of november where we will be analyzing where we are and have we achieved a goal for november or will we need to take further measures. So our political will is to do everything we can to these restrictions to the month of november but i cannot promise you that from the 1st of december everyone will be able to enjoy their free lives just as they did before a pandemic know all of the rules and regulations will remain important hygiene regulations the warning. Ventilation. Of these things will be important the warning up as well yeah so that we do everything we can to make this predictable if we can and were doing a great deal to try to balance out the economic damage but i cannot speculate about anything more than what were trying to do and wish asks about the meeting with the state premiers and actually. You have been watching german chancellor Angela Merkel addressing the public as the country heads back into a partial lockdown as it battles the 2nd wave of the corona virus pandemic the chancellor highlighting the fact that in the country it has been battling a rise in cases she says cases have increased 5 fold since mid october we have coverage of this event we are joins. Now by our Political CorrespondentThomas Sparrow and thomas if you could just address some of the details of what the chancellor was saying she talked about a Hospital System for example that was facing being overwhelmed potentially if things continue on this trajectory and we have to say just generally speaking i mean she tends to be quite measured at these press conferences you really heard a sense of urgency a sense of concern didnt you from the chancellor. There was certainly a sense of urgency and this explains why im going to call the german chancellor actually addressed the federal press center where were actually broadcasting from now to explain the governments policy when it comes to this partial lockdown ill just give you a bit of context because it is highly unusual for the german chancellor to do this to give these press conference it was something that was unscheduled it was something that was only announced on very short notice today im going to merkel normally comes to the federal press center once a year in the summer for her yearly press conference but the fact that shes doing that now or that it was done at a very short notice just give you an idea of that sense of urgency that the German Government now feels when it comes to the coronavirus days and in particular to that speed at which the corona virus is spreading in germany you already mentioned one of the key stats there im going to highlight it 2 very important elements one that speed at which the corona virus is spreading which is something that in the next few weeks could actually lead to hospitals and Public Health institutions being overwhelmed that is the main goal that the government has to prevent that from happening the 2nd element which Angela Merkel mentioned in her introduction was the fact that this is something necessary she decided that it was something that had to be done given those numbers and she also stressed the fact that many Regional Health departments can no longer trace where the corona virus infections actually coming from and numbers then have to go down have to go down below threshold in order for those Health Departments to actually be able to trace once again where they infections come from so this is certainly sorrow a very serious situation that germany now faces and this also gives you an idea why im going to merkel today on a very short notice i had to come to the federal press center here in central berlin to explain the government policy on the coronavirus and in particular this partial lockdown that germans will have to face in the month of november 1 of the things that she also was highlighting here was this. Its not just about hygiene and social distancing this is really now were entering a phase where reducing ones contacts are critical because germany has essentially lost the ability to trace where these infections are coming from she wants the country to get back to a situation where they can indeed trace so thomas just walk us through the measures that are being imposed now because she says a lot of lessons were actually learned from that 1st lockdown that the country had back in spring how is this lockdown now different. Thats absolutely right cyrus all those measures that were in place beforehand which include obviously social distancing or wearing the mosque for example in closed places or on public transport the government and other authorities believe that they are no longer enough to actually reduce the numbers that were seeing here in germany were seeing very high numbers in fact Angela Merkel had previously predicted that germany would see around 19200 cases by christmas and we already saw those 19000 cases a few days ago so this should again give you an idea of that speed at which the corona virus is spreading and thats the reason why the government had to announce further measures that go beyond those measures that were previously in place this is whats being described as a partial lockdown or a lockdown light which essentially means that schools and day care can remain open that shops can remain open obviously increasing social distancing measures but basically Everything Else has to close from today until the end of the month so bars restaurants james museums theaters focus on recreate. The Hospitality Industry obviously as you can imagine this is something that where not everyone is happy about the Hospitality Industry for example staged a protest last week saying that this was something that affected them very badly and saying they were particularly concerned about those restrictions but again if you hear what the government has been saying in particular is that these measures are actually necessary and because you cant trace where 75 percent of infections come from it is necessary to have this kind of partial lockdown or lockdown like in other words the previous measures that were in place social distancing wearing the mosque or the closure of certain boss for example in restaurants at a certain time and no longer enough to actually contain or reduce the spread of the coronavirus hence the need to have these measures now in place time is a really interesting lee also she mentioned that schools are remaining open this time around why is that. Thats essentially been the goal of the