Germany set to move from 'lockdown light' to a harder lockdown
The German virus situation looks to be taking a turn for the worse in the past week, with a record amount of daily cases reported on Friday alongside the deadliest day of the pandemic as the death count continues to rack up.
In the past week alone i.e. 7 to 13 December, Germany reported 3,015 virus deaths and that accounts for nearly 14% of the total virus deaths since the pandemic began.
German news outlet, n-tv, is reporting that the federal and state governments have largely agreed on tougher restrictions and a harder lockdown, which should go into effect starting from Wednesday, 16 December next week.
The measures should initially apply until 10 January, with an extension to be discussed on 5 January. The final decision will be made later this morning.
Some of the details from the report reveal that Germany will close retail shops barring essentials, schools are also to be closed or at least attendance be made non-mandatory, and there will be a ban on consumption of alcohol in public.
Again, this will have a negative impact on economic prospects and the overall outlook going into Q1 2021. However, the ECB has already responded accordingly with its "recalibration" measures all the way through to June 2022 at least.
The central bank measures may yet be enough to get the market to "ignore" the ongoing pessimism and keep with vaccine optimism. But just be mindful that the more negative news that we get in the meantime, it will slowly and surely add up.