BERLIN: Germany inched towards stricter measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus
on Tuesday, as an eastern region said it would close schools and most businesses and the health minister warned a partial lockdown had not stopped the disease.
Europe’s biggest economy is struggling to squash new infections in a second wave of COVID-19 that is both proving far more difficult to tame than the first one and extracting a heavier human toll as daily deaths hit record highs.
The governor of the eastern state of Saxony, which has the highest seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 residents anywhere in Germany, said schools and non-essential businesses will be shut from Dec. 14 as hospitals struggle to take in patients.
“The situation in hospitals is not only tense, it is extremely dangerous at many locations, partly because a large number of beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients,” Saxony Governor Michael Kretschmer said during a news conference.
Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn…
