1. Deaths: 4,415 Infections: 142,422 (Focus numbers)
2. Childcare or kindergartens to open soon? No.....don't anticipate that.
3. Schools in Germany (for the most part) will open on 4 May. Summer vacation periods coming up? Well....yeah, that's curious thing. By mid-to-late May period, you'd be in serious relaxation in school.....doing virtually nothing challenging for the final four weeks of school. So the value of opening, at least to me, is pretty empty.
4. Church ban? Continues on. Oddly, they aren't arguing like some folks in the US.
5. Rules still differing state by state? OH YEAH. For example, if you live in the state of Bavaria, the exit-rule is still in effect. You don't exit the house unless it's for essential stuff. That goes to 3 May right now. Some cities have issued mask mandates, where you can't enter any shop or grocery, without a mask. So where you live....means paying attention to the rules. You can go over to the Focus site and read the state-by-state bans/rules (in German).
6. The Anne Will Show last night (ARD's public forum carried live at 9:45 PM) hit on one particular subject.....the journalists wanted a get-well-soon listing from the politicians, and the one political figure from the CDU (Altmaier)....refused to play the game. In simple terms, there's no script, and people are making best-guess judgments as each week goes by.
7. Czech talking about a one-year border closure? Well, this is openly discussed. They would allow truckers to enter, but Czech people couldn't leave, and non-Czechs couldn't enter. It's an extreme view that most people appear to question. It might be enforceable for 90 days, but an entire year?
8. It's kinda come out in Germany that in the retail, medical and administrative fields.....there are around a half-million Germans who are single-parents. The schedules and threat of a virus....has brought these people up to the top....to be noticed.
9. Ice cream rules? Here in the Wiesbaden area, starting today....ice cream shops can open. But there are rules. So the idea of the edible cups? Out. Eating in a public park or public lawn? That's out as well. Eating within 50 meters of the shop where you bought it? That's forbidden as well. So you can buy it in a plain paper cup, and walk 50 meters away.....to eat it.
10. The local Hessen amateur soccer league killed off for the fall of 2020? Yep, there's the chatter that they won't even attempt to reopen in the fall.
11. Friday evening of last week, I sat and watched a five-minute news piece....over a German farm tractor production plant. The manager is the only guy in the factory.....currently at work. His biggest problem? Some parts for the tractor are made in Italy, and they aren't that sure about when production will start back up. The German manager was a bit peeved.....he can't forecast nothing for his employees. He's got dozens of tractors on the assembly line....that can't be moved forward to complete, because of the parts shortage.
12. Sunday German package delivery? Normally, that would be a forbidden topic. The German Post has brought up the idea of allowing Sunday delivery on packages. In simple terms.....folks are ordering a heck of a lot of stuff, and that's screwed-up the current manpower situation. How this would play out? Well, it's a state-by-state permission thing. So you could have DHL delivering in the Pfalz, but across the river in Hessen....it might be forbidden.
13. Domestic tourism? Let's be kinda honest, about half of all Germans really don't care about a week or two of vacation in Germany.....they want something 'exotic' (don't ask). You know....foreign (like Ibiza, Thailand, or Egypt). So political folks are trying to hype the idea that bans could drop and regional hotels could be opened....to allow you a vacation this summer, in a German landscape.
How many folks would accept this? Unknown. With my German wife, she'd let me know right away that various places are not going to be on her list (most of former East Germany for example).
But this is a point of desperation.....most Germans will take a week or two each summer and go somewhere.....telling you that they need it bad. So if you say airports are forbidden, and you don't feel safe in Italy or Spain....what's left? A week in Rostock? A week on some rustic farm in Bavaria?
14. Finally, the Health Minister (Spahn) said in a very blunt way.....the hygiene rules and bans.....might be around for the rest of 2020. He didn't want anyone getting their hopes up. That 1.5 meter social distance rule? I might suspect that it'll be around for three-plus years.
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