Today's corona news in 60 seconds
+++ Another record +++ Berlin's unique lockdown +++ No more Flixbus for now +++ The stats +++
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 Thursday, 29 October)
🟢 R number: 0.96 (0.99 Wednesday)
🔴 New infections per week: 155.6 / 100,000 inhabitants (144.3 Wednesday)
🟢 Share of Berlin ICUs occupied by Covid-19 patients: 12.2 per cent (11.6 per cent Wednesday)
Total number of corona deaths: 253 (+ 0)
Source: Berlin's coronavirus status page
The lowdown...
New day, new record
The Robert Koch Institute, the German infectious disease centre, on Friday said it had recorded 18,681 new corona cases on Thursday, the most ever recorded since the start of the pandemic. The number of Covid-19 deaths nationwide rose by 77 to a total of 10,349.
Berlin's corona rules?
The city-state's top politicians Thursday agreed to vary slightly from the corona lockdown that begins Monday and was discussed Wednesday by Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of the country's 16 states. Both zoos will remain open and children 12 and under can meet in groups of 10 or less for sports. An unlimited number of kids 12 and under can also meet outside, but they have to belong to the same class or daycare group. Playgrounds will also remain open and libraries may still loan out books, which is the library equivalent of take-out.
No more Flixbuses for now
Discount travel company Flixbus as well as its rail unit Flixtrain will pause operations in Germany, Switzerland and Austria starting 3 November in response to government tourism restrictions, newswire dpa reported. The company also parked its buses and trains last spring during the lockdown and the company's top executive said it ran at about 50 per cent capacity during the summer.
In case you missed it...
How about a little Berlin levity? The Berlin Ausländer Memes Instagram page takes the pains of living in Germany's capital and turns them into online yucks. It's nice to know you're not alone. Our interview with them is here.
That's all for now folks. Stay safe!
Yours,
The Berliner Zeitung English team
P.S. We're on Twitter and Facebook.