Today's corona news in 60 seconds

Berlin-Every weekday at 11am come to the Berliner Zeitung English Edition for the latest corona/Covid-19 news at a glance.

First, the official corona stats for Berlin (tallied Monday, 28 September)

R number: 1.05 (0.97 Sunday)

New infections per week: 28.7 / 100,000 inhabitants (28.3 Sunday)

Percentage of Covid-19 patients in intensive care: 1.8 per cent (1.6 Sunday)

Total number of corona deaths: 228 (no change)

Source: Berlin's coronavirus status page 

The lowdown...

How to deal with superspreading party people?

Angela Merkel is pissed at Berlin for evolving into a corona hotspot, largely due to carousing youth - and the Senat is scrambling for solutions that will get Berliners to behave themselves. Tuesday afternoon, the leaders of Germany's 16 states are meeting to discuss possible new nationwide restrictions in reponse to rising infection numbers. We won't bore you with all the details but in a nutshell, they'll be discussing proposals to limit indoor, private events to 25 participants. Also on the table: limiting the sale of alcohol to certain times of the day, expanding the list of places where you have to wear a mask. Watch this space!

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg says no to military helpers

Bastion of anti-establishment lefties, anti-fascists and pacifists, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, is the only Berlin district turning down the German defence ministry's offer to send in the troops to help out with coronavirus contact tracing. Leader of the Berlin CDU Kai Wegner called the decision "a slap in citizens' face" and accused the Green-led district council of "ideological delusion".

Sixty soldiers are already helping out in other boroughs, 180 are to follow, according to Berliner Morgenpost. With 45.6 new corona cases per 100,000 over the past seven days, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg has the second-highest rate of infection in the city after Mitte. 

German public debt going up and up - thanks to corona

To cope with the economic fallout of the pandemic, the Germans have abandoned their most-cherished quality: thrift. The tweet below by the Federal Statistics Office shows how the various Bundesländer have been racking up debt like there's no tomorrow! Berlin up 6 per cent to €57.2b.

In case you missed it...

Typical Berlin story: punks were saddened that their favourite cheap beer, Sternburg, had been taken over by a megacorp. They took matters into their own hands and are crowdfunding their very own indie Sterni clone. A victory for cheap beer lovers with a conscience! Read on.

That's all for now folks. Stay healthy!

Yours,

The Berliner Zeitung English team

P.S. We're on Twitter and Facebook.