Today's corona news in 60 seconds
+++ Record death toll +++ Corona summit +++ November cash +++ The 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 Tuesday, 24 November)
New cases in one day: 1,615 (Monday 805)
Total number of corona deaths: 492 (+36 over Monday)
🟢 R number: 0.97 (1.08 Monday)
🔴 New infections per week: 223.4 / 100,000 inhabitants (222 Monday)
🟡 Share of Berlin ICUs occupied by Covid-19 patients: 24.2 per cent (23.8 per cent Monday)
Source: Berlin's coronavirus status page
The lowdown...
Record death count
If you thought Germany had the pandemic even halfway under control, the nationwide stats tell another, sadder story. On Tuesday, health authorities from around the country reported a total of 410 new corona-related deaths within a 24-hour period, a record number since the beginning of the pandemic. The previous one-day high of 315 deaths was recorded in mid-April.
Another week, another corona summit....
Angela Merkel and the 16 state premiers are meeting again today to discuss corona measures for the rest of the year. This time the state leaders hashed out their own 14-page draft of new measures in advance. Wednesday afternoon, they're expected to sign off on the document pretty quickly. In a nutshell: lockdown lite till X-mas, restaurants, bars, culture and recreation remain shuttered for two weeks at a time till the situation improves. Only two households can meet (max 5 people), with exceptions made for Christmas and New Year's Eve. We won't list all the proposed measures here (we did that in Tuesday's edition of "Today's corona news in 60 seconds." Tomorrow morning we'll have all the deets right here.
Self-employed? Looks like the government's "November aid" is almost ready to go
At their summit, the politicos are also expected to sign off on the latest round of corona aid for businesses hammered by the November (and now December) partial shutdown. Following the free-for-all money grab in the spring, it's not surpising that Germany has now made the application process about as pleasurable as doing your taxes. Read more in our latest piece on small-business aid.
Scratchy throat? Stay home, says Drosten
During his latest corona podcast at NDR Info, virologist Christian Drosten called on people to stay home even if they had mild cold symptoms such as a scratchy throat or runny nose. Drosten said that, in this phase of the pandemic, "you shouldn't go to work sick or ailing, even if your GP has said they're not going to perform a corona test."
In case you missed it...
If you're having any doubts at all over whether Covid-19 is a dangerous disease, we highly recommend our colleague Anna Lena Mösken's interview with two nurses working in a Covid ward at Berlin's Charité hospital.
That's all for now, folks. Stay safe!
Yours,
The Berliner Zeitung English team
P.S. We're on Twitter and Facebook.