this is deja vu news live from berlin german chancellor all of acol is about to address parliament on new pandemic lockdown measures germany's facing the prospect of a month of deserted streets once more after federal and state governments agreed to a range of new restrictions to tackle the coronavirus in the last 24 hours germany has reported nearly $17000.00 new infections it's the country's highest daily increase since the pandemic began.

i'm brian thomas good to have you with us today i'm here in the studio with our political correspondent hans brant as german chancellor angela merkel is set to address parliament to lay out the government's new efforts to contain the coronavirus now this comes one day after she announced a limited national lockdown for most of november these are live pictures we're getting right now from the bundestag in berlin where merkel will be speaking shortly german is experiencing an alarming rise in new infections beginning monday restaurants gyms bars and theaters will be among the businesses that will have to shut down schools shops and places of worship will however be remaining open. well here's on sprott now hans the chancellor is about to lay out some very strict guidelines for the

country national guidelines what's the government saying about the threat level that's made this necessary well it's i who has been the warning voice in germany for quite a long time if we look back just one month at that time she predicted simply by saying how quickly the number of income infections was doubling predicted that by the end of december by the end of the year we would be close to $20000.00 cases a year a day at that time that was regarded as alarmist one and she was criticised for being much too. much too strict in the way she had interpreted it in fact now a new 4 weeks later on or 3 months later we are at the level of 17000 so the. figure of 1000 isn't very far away a toll again 2 weeks ago. met with the premise of the various regions in germany the 16 regions that had a similar meeting to the one that they had yesterday they decided on new measures

and at that time 2 weeks ago it was i'm going to market again went public with criticism of the regional leaders saying that the measures that have been decided had been too weak not strong enough and that that would mean that cases would rise again she was proven right today 2 weeks later. reaching new records the measures that were taken to about 2 weeks ago clearly have little effect the regional leaders though we're talking about the state premiers of germany 16 federal states in rural errors are saying the problems we're having are not like the ones urban areas are saying and specific specific parts of cities like berlin even are different than other parts so there's a big concern in the regions isn't there that they address these issues of pandemic increases of coronavirus increases and not have the national lockdown we're seeing that is one of their main criticisms that was their critters. isn't that was their criticism 2 weeks ago and 2 weeks ago they're trying to impose try to have

a jump in there the chancellor is about to begin her address or government statement on the new law measures let's listen. colonics ladies and gentlemen in the last few weeks the new figures for infection so you can chris dramatically many public health officers because of the high level of people infected with the virus have reached their limits and are no longer able to trace contacts affected. and it shows that the higher number of active covert 19 cases is reflected in a higher number of people in hospital of the number of i.c.u. patients has doubled in the last 10 days on the 18th of october it was 790 patients on the 18th 10 days later it was 1596 a dynamism of this kind means that in just

a few weeks you cast these will be overwhelmed and all of this shows that we find ourselves at the start of a cold season in a very dramatic situation and it is one that impacts on all of us without exception and this is why the heads of the federal state government and the national government met for an emergency conference yesterday and have reached new agreements. as a comment on that in this opposite then so we met with the state premiers and agreed the following from the 2nd of november until the 30th of november. there will be sweeping reductions of contact after 2. weeks we will meet again and when necessary we'll adapt the measures put in place the contact restrictions refer primarily to

private contacts and in public in the future it should only be possible for 2 households to meet a maximum of 10 people in all private contact must be reduced to an absolutely necessary minimum. and citizens are asked to refrain from private trips also the visits to relations and there will be no more tourist overnight. and there will be. a closing of all cultural institutions and many in the hospitality sector as well. and. we have to started to be focused on ensuring that we can do everything possible to keep daycare centers and schools open. when the skipping business is going to bring with them but often only germany government willingly supporting those companies and institutions and

associations too are impacted on this economically to get over this difficult time . and it's minister shots and we'll be coming up with some specific proposals in the days to come thanks to this ghost cloud our if i don't want to miss my words here i understand the frustration i understand the despair particularly in these sectors that affected so many hygiene concepts of been devised and those who were impacted on by this ask themselves was it all pointless and let me say no it was not pointless it is hygiene concepts will be necessary once again but in the current exponential rise in infections that we are seeing here these concepts of hygiene that we have had simply are in effect if 75 percent of the origins. infections can no longer be traced and we must get out of this state of affairs as

quickly as possible ladies and gentlemen. you must know then measures that we have to take now. necessary or appropriate and this is. commend sure of all. here former colleagues madam chancellor. or. view moment to hear my mom is obviously we all have different opinions as to which are the right measures and which are not the right measures says the president. but in our country in europe and indeed in the entire world we find ourselves in an extraordinarily difficult situation. if you want to be modern you chancellor is giving an address to the government about the

measures that the german government has agreed with the state assemblies and i set out in our constitution just a moment here if you're going to interrupt the president of the bundestag you're going to be in serious trouble that's a dangerous approach i warn you. i'm still trying to have her address to the government we will have a discussion with the madam chancellor and then you can express your opinions but i think no one in this country will be able to understand if we will not allow the chancellor to see addresses on the subject with the discipline that such an address demands. you must not even get a guy the measures that we see ourselves. we believe are necessary to take mentionable there is no other way of doing it than

reducing contacts strictly in order to bring down the rise of infection in this to a manageable level the public health offices in our country despite the fact that we have reinforced them through new personnel are no longer able to trace the contacts of infected people and to prevent the spread of the virus through tracing the origins and this is where the exponential growth is coming from which means that the risk of members of risk groups getting infected is higher and higher to spell it out again. having looked at how we can best protect these risk groups means that because of the very different living situations of them but also because of the particularly harsh impact on those who are risk groups

cannot be a mild approach and let me remind you that it's not just older people that we see as risk groups here but it's also of those with previous diseases and conditions but even people who are very healthy that there can be some extremely severe cases of covert 1000 and this is why none of the other concepts will do the job in the current situation and the current situation that we find ourselves in the dynamic rise of infections can have dramatic impact on many many citizens in terms of their health or even their lives and we can only reduce we can only address this by systematically reducing contacts the aim is to reduce the contact that people have in their public lives with other people ideally to reduce the level of context is by 75 percent and therefore it would. use the risk of infection the agreements that we have set in place here are ones that mean that we are aware of the impact

this will have on economic lives and the public knowledge of people but in terms of the care of children we want to have daycare centers and schools stay open wherever this is possible but let me add that there have to be even more hygiene rules in place for this to be possible and the federal states who are responsible for this i would like to ask to be creative in thinking out options here. in addition economic life is to continue economic life is to continue where possible where you can avoid unnecessary contact consistently let me repeat that the measures that we put in place here are appropriate they are necessary and they hear to the principle of commensurately. and really believe that he believes colleagues if we were to just wait until i see used are overwhelmed it would be too late

because the i see years. follow the rise of infection in. directly and this is not just about. the response capacity of our public health systems but also the entire infrastructure of our country and i'm talking about social and economic infrastructure here we find ourselves at the start of the winter here in a very dramatic situation which impacts on all of us without an exception this is a worrying situation and wishful thinking or happy list statements about how it's all not that serious would simply be irresponsible. because even though calling and. it's down to us as to what happens next it depends on every. one of us the behavior of each individual our commitment and our in

durant and our ability to care for others the pandemic. really tests our democratic society and in a number of different ways all of which are relevant all of which are painful and all of which are ones we must take seriously this pandemic is a medical and economic and a social and a political and psychological test. we will only be able to counter it with cohesion and with the willingness to speak with one another frankly and enter into an open dialogue with iran and i think. if we look back at 8 months of experience of dealing with this buyers it remains a time of learning together. again and again today. looking at the scientific research we have learned as policymakers and i'm grateful

for this i'm grateful because the pandemic and the measures to combat it spread have been ones that have demanded a great deal from the people in germany many of the measures that we have put into place are really hard they don't just curtail our liberties but they also weaken many of our companies they make it harder to have education to enjoy cultural measures and to meet other people. but all of the efforts that have been made by the citizens knowing that in. refraining from these activities they are protecting other people is one that touches me and impresses me deeply so once again i want to express my gratitude to all of you for the efforts you've made so far thank you. because we've also got this extraordinary supports for the measures we have put into place so far is one that

we can feel even in this parliament and for that colleagues i'm very grateful particularly in an extraordinary situation such as a pandemic naturally we dispute the best solutions in the best spirit of parliamentary democracy but really only despite this or perhaps particularly because of this and i'm going to emphasize that i am very grateful for the will of all with you who are responsible to reach an agreement as difficult as it is to weigh at the individual interest in the german government here in the parliament and with the federal state and within the european union and let me spell it out again it is important it is necessary we cannot do without these measures that are put in place to combat a pandemic and which are really serious and tough in the way that they impact on our liberties as well must be discussed publicly must be criticized publicly as

well and must be examined in terms of their appropriateness i believe this is part of being an open society that we can have such discussions. that there should be but ish critical debate does not mean we can see it strengthens and unlike you see because only if we have public debates about political decision is that a made can we really accept them or counter them but both help to make progress here but let me also spell it out lying and fake news conspiracy theories and incitement to hatred don't just damage a democratic debate but they also damage our fight against the virus.

that winter actually did involve the fact that the differences between what is right and wrong what is true and false that the boundaries between them are blurred is something we must not allow because things that have proven to be wrong scientifically must be pointed out of such from our reference to facts and information depends not just democratic debate people's lives depend on this. upon the me and look this pandemic brings one issue into the focus which has become part of our vocabulary and that is freedom and this time it's very specific because the measures that we put in place in spring and yesterday again curtail our freedoms at the same time we feel again and again that freedom doesn't mean everyone can do whatever they want and freedom means responsibility responsibility

for ourselves and our actions. responsibility for our own friends and family for our colleagues at work and for everyone in society the pandemic makes it as clear as possible that we are all part of the whole if we have careless if we don't socially distant if we don't cover our nose and mouth if we party despite this we spread the virus and endanger other people decided to but if we stick to the rules then we can. help everyone in this country to stand up to this test of fire. and then ladies and gentlemen that is living a freedom in responsibility which is not easy it requires refraining from some of the. we want to do things that we love to do the thing we like doing most perhaps

in meeting other people and that after a summer in which the rise of new infections remained stable and we only had regional outbreaks but now the situation has exacerbated 4 weeks ago when the number of new infections was about a 1000 people most it was thought that the values that we reached every day now of over 10000 new infections a day it seemed impossible to imagine and the 7 day factor of over one off. well huge amounts in every 100000 it's just increase in increased. and this makes it clear. how hard the public health association a public health offices are having to work. because there are so many new cases of infections we can no longer trace the origin of the infections and this means that

we cannot contain the infections and this is why it is so important that we have set the course for combat in the pandemic in the future this is true for example when it comes to the protective equipment in the. spring we were really struggling we had to import p.p.a. but now we have got a national production lines for personal protective equipment that makes it possible for us to fulfill our own needs here to a large extent then our testing strategy has been adapted to the epidemic a logical state with the anti janus fast tests we are entering a new chapter test and this means that in senior citizens homes and nursing care homes we can test whether or not a visitor is infectious or not now when it comes to preventive tests. we will be a lot faster and much more efficient in generating results actually the pandemic is

a major challenge for us as well and we see in many of the new york just how dramatically the situation is developing with incredibly fast rises of new infections as well as severe cases and deaths that go hand in hand with them and neighbors too. and you will have seen that the french president made similar statements but it's also true for belgium netherlands the czech republic and poland and many other countries as well despite this i believe that we are better prepared for the current situation in europe than we were in the beginning of the pandemic the restrictions in the single market and the shame and system once we want to keep as minimum as possible come back saying the pandemic europe wide is something that we are doing with the vaccine research i want to thank him

for his involvement in the europe and we have now got framework agreements with several 1000000 doses for several 1000000 doses of the vaccine with a number of different pharmaceutical countries preparations for vaccinations in terms of. vaccination centers as well as coming up with ethical guidelines for the prioritize ation of who gets the vaccine 1st once it's there and we're also coordinating with the member states about people traveling to our countries from abroad so we're coordinating with our corona warning and the restrictions about traveling to risk areas and from risk areas now we're going to coordinate the testing regime and tracking tracing contacts across borders and the quantity regulations i will be meeting with the. show michel. the president of the e.u. commission and with the other heads of state and government in europe where we will be discussing further steps because we know the way we tackle the pandemic europe

doesn't just decide about the health of our citizens and national economies but it will also be definitive in its influence of the capacity of europe and therefore the legitimacy of our european model of society and economy worldwide the world is watching us and there is a strong global competition we have the corona warning app in germany means that we have set up early we're running systems that can alarm and alert contact persons at the moment we have 21000000 downloads and the number of test results shared on the app is increasing that we need to get in bed here at the moment 98 percent of the test labs are connected to the app and to the trend is rising which means that our current one in app is helpful for the public health offices even if

it doesn't help them directly at least there are. alerts to those who have contacts have had contact to infected people the app is now available in a number of different languages and can communicate with other european kona warning absent exchange contacts there and it's significant increases every day and this is why it is so important that we continue to. encourage people to download this app and. and finally compared to the beginning of the pandemic we now know more about the coverage 19 and how it is transmitted the same is true for the disease itself of cover 19 and how to treat it research has contribution significantly to overcoming this pandemic it goes from initial research and development of new testing methods treatments. and vaccinations as well as the looking at the passive transmission and the epidemiological developments as well as

impact on society as a whole. the expertise of the robot institutes but also so many researchers of the various different disciplines have done a wonderful job thank you so much there are very many thanks for your time ours done in the last weeks colleagues in the weeks and months to come. will be decisive that everyone understands why we have to take these measures at this time and not every one of us has to contribute to this but every single one of them have to every single one of us have to understand what we can do to improve the situation and. my team go and. sign. journalist said in an interview. something that i could never say as well as she

did but something that i think reflects my deep conviction and that's why i want to refer to what she said. she said it's about our attitude to the virus. and if you imagine the virus could think the virus would think and i quote. i have the perfect host here these people they live all over the planet and they're globally connected they're sociable creatures they can't survive without contact to one another their head in a stick they love hard seeing i couldn't have it better says the virus and she went on to say that again from the perspective of the people no virus. have you learned anything from evolution we people have shown again and again that we're incredibly good at coping with difficult situations and adapting we will show you fight. that you have chosen the wrong host.

and author david smith. and the journalist concluded from this scientists journalist she said if we also think about the fact that it could be a lot worst we can get the motivation for doing without certain things that we have to do that in other words the way we as human beings have tackled so many problems in the course of our history in the pandemic as well every single one of us can consciously or actively to combat teef this pandemic by joining forces and actively means in this case of refraining from every social contact we can do without every contact that isn't necessary this is the core of combat in the pandemic and the measures that we have put in place are all based on this and so for the months weeks and months ahead i want to say as all working together

for one another because only if we take care of one another will we get over this difficult questions this will be a tough went to 4 long difficult months but it will end in the last 8 months we've already seen how we can learn from one another how we can support one another and that's what makes our society what it is a willingness to help one another a willingness to think of one another and these things that make me optimistic thank you. before. you were w.'s wife coverage of the german chancellor's address to parliament against the background of the rare destruction story of councillors address all america has laid out for a new package of measures to contain the coronavirus. she pointed out that the exponential rise of new infections and the threat of overcrowded intensive care

units made the move necessary measures include closing bars restaurants gym cinemas and theaters shops schools and places of worship will remain open our political correspondent hans brandt has been listening into the speech with mina's here in the studio to talk about it today to you hans we saw some rare disruptions there in the opposition back benches from the f.t. the alternative of germany what point were those parliamentarians trying to make well there are 2 points to this the f.t. the right wing populists in this current situation have trouble raising their voices have trouble increasing their political profile because obviously a lot of the focus is on government action on what i'm going to go on with the regional.