Bavaria’s prime minister comments on the increasingly louder demands for timely resumption of school lessons – and rejects it. All information in the news blog.
Worldwide, more than 1.9 million people are infected with the corona virus and more than 119,000 have died. The states react very differently to the danger: in some European countries, relaxation of the rigorous measures in the fight against the virus has already been announced. In Germany, too, some countries are preparing to return to normal. NRW is the beginning.
Söder refuses to open the schools promptly
Unlike some federal states, Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder refuses to open the schools promptly after the Easter holidays because of the corona pandemic. “I am very reluctant to go to schools,” said the CSU boss on Tuesday evening in the “heute-journal” of ZDF. He is also skeptical that primary schools should be opened first. “I have a fundamentally different view.” Söder thus distances itself from the announcement from North Rhine-Westphalia that it wants to open the schools step by step after the end of the Easter holidays on April 19, and from a recommendation by the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina to open primary schools first.
“You have to talk about graduation classes, and not too quickly either. In my opinion, elementary schools are the last thing to do, because the little ones cannot adhere to hygiene concepts,” Söder emphasized. A long-term concept was needed to reopen the schools after the Corona forced break. “The teachers’ associations are very reluctant to open school quickly because they say that a school must also be organized”. As examples, he cited curricula and timetables that were redefined and distance rules that would have to be organized.
Maas: Exit strategy must carefully consider all risks
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned before federal and state deliberations on possible easing of restrictions in the corona crisis to carefully consider all risks. “A look across our borders, where, unfortunately, there are new bitter deaths every day in some countries, shows that every day that contact breaks too early can have dramatic consequences for the health of many people,” said the SPD politician of the “Rhenish Post”.
Should there be a further sharp increase in infections, Germany could be forced to take even more drastic measures than before. “We have to do everything possible to avoid such a scenario. We need an exit strategy that carefully weighs up all the risks.”
Satellite images show a decrease in pollution
In Germany, the pollution caused by the corona crisis has decreased. As the “Wirtschaftswoche” reported on Tuesday after evaluating data from the European earth observation satellite Sentinal-5P, less extreme nitrogen dioxide values have been measured in the atmosphere over Central Europe since the beginning of April. Hardly any large clouds of pollutants can be seen on satellite images above German metropolitan areas, the magazine writes.
The director of earth observation programs at the European Space Agency, Josef Aschbacher, told “Wirtschaftswoche” that the decline in nitrogen dioxide pollution in Germany can be seen in the Ruhr area and on the border with Belgium and the Netherlands. The decline is even more noticeable in southern European cities. a reduction of 65 percent was measured in Barcelona.
New York City counts suspected cases – 10,000 deaths
The city of New York now also includes suspected cases of death among the authorities responsible. There are 3,700 people who have never been tested on Covid-19, but are likely to have died from the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to the Metropolitan Health Service. With them, the death toll in New York City since March 11 has now reached more than 10,000.
US governors oppose Trump
In the United States, an open struggle has flared up between President Donald Trump and the governors over a possible relaxation of the strict anti-corona measures. The president claimed absolute powers in the question – and immediately received opposition from governors. “We have no king, we have an elected president,” said New York governor Andrew Cuomo. Read more about this dispute here.
The number of infections in Turkey continues to rise sharply
In Turkey, the number of known coronavirus infections has increased by 4,062 to 65,111 in the past 24 hours, as the Ministry of Health announced in the evening. During the same period, 107 people had died in connection with Covid-19, bringing the death toll to 1,403. In total, almost 4,800 patients have recovered.
Call between First Ladies
Elke Büdenbender, the wife of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, spoke to the first lady of the United States, Melania Trump, about the situation in the corona pandemic. Melania Trump called Büdenbender on Tuesday to inquire about the situation in Germany, the Federal President’s Office told the German Press Agency. “Elke Büdenbender thanked Melania Trump for this special gesture of transatlantic friendship and conveyed her best wishes:” I very much hope that the situation in your country will soon improve and turn for the better. “”
The two presidential wives exchanged views on the current situation and other planned measures and declared “their special solidarity and sympathy with the people in the United States and Germany”.
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The White House said US President Donald Trump’s wife had affirmed that the United States would help Germany and the rest of Europe fight the pandemic.
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In order to make reading easier and reduce loading times, the editors start the news blog again at this point. You can read about the previous developments in the Corona crisis here.
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