Today's Berlin corona news in 60 seconds
+++ Barbers open +++ Plan to make a plan +++ Pols skip vaxx line +++ Stats +++
Berlin - Every weekday at 11am come to the Berliner Zeitung English Edition for the corona/Covid-19 news at a glance.
The latest corona stats for Berlin (tallied Sunday, 28 February)
New cases in one day: +103 (+311 Saturday)
Total number of corona deaths: 2,818 (+0 over Saturday)
🟢 R number: 1.12 (0.90 Saturday)
🔴 New infections per week: 65.5/100,000 inhabitants (66.2 Saturday)
🟡 Share of Berlin ICUs occupied by Covid-19 patients: 17.4 per cent (17.8 per cent Saturday)
Source: Berlin's coronavirus status page
The lowdown ...
Hairdressers open today
Berliners will be storming barber salons today to shed those lockdown locks and irksome split ends. Some salons were reported to have opened at midnight. What else is open? Flower shops can now open for pick up orders. Bike stores and bookshops have been open the whole time, but you knew that.
Reopening plan coming Wednesday?
Once again chancellor Angela Merkel and the 16 state premiers will meet to talk corona on Wednesday. Expectations for the chat to result in a reopening roadmap run high. Businesspeople, educators and culture institutions are getting restless. Berlin mayor Michael Müller (SPD), who chairs the meetings, said: "I firmly expect that we will agree on a basic framework with each other that the Länder can use as a guide." We'll keep you posted.
Pols and family members skip vaccine queue
Markus Wagner, an AfD politician in North Rhine-Westphalia, got himself, his wife, his 16-year-old son and his 81-year-old mother-in-law vaccinated against coronavirus, according to a report by TV channel WDR. Wagner got his family members innoculated at a home for the mentally disabled that he runs. Wagner justified his son getting the shot because he often comes to the centre to spend time with residents. FDP politician Ralph Bombis also jumped the line and used "leftover doses" from the care homes he manages to get his family members vaccinated. When the story broke, Bombis resigned from his party posts.
In case you missed it ....
We caught up with Berlin-based British author and founder of The Reader Berlin, Victoria Gosling. We interviewed her about her debut novel.
Finally, don't miss an article: sign up for our new weekly epistle Ze Newsletter here!
That's all for now, folks. Stay safe!
Yours,
The Berliner Zeitung English team
P.S. We're on Twitter and Facebook.