1. Dead: 701 (Focus numbers) Infected: 67,021 (Focus numbers). Death count bumped up a bit in past 24 hours.
2. A passenger ship in the Med is reported to have around 20 passengers with the virus. Ship is docked in Greece and is under quarantine.
3. I would estimate from the three primary public TV networks that are viewed in the house (ARD, HR, ZDF).....there's probably around thirty hours of the day consumed with Corona-type news or discussions. If you attempted to view just them...mentally, it'd be a severe strain on your mind. The problem is that even the commercial networks are going to this way and throwing around a quarter of their evening viewing toward the subject.
4. One of the chiefs of the SPD Party discussed the idea of wealth-sharing/wealth-redistribution because of the Corona crisis. Another wealth-tax discussion has opened up....in the middle of this period.
5. Publicly reported this morning that Karstadt (the Macy's-like storefront in Germany) will refuse to pay rent here in April. By the new law, they can inform the owners of the buildings and refuse to pay. Financially, they haven't been that healthy on profits for the past five years and numerous stores have been shutdown long before this virus came up.
6. Because of the German tendency to have summer and winter tires....a new problem has popped up. Among the tire shops.....they were on the forced-to-close list, and April is the typical month that you'd go over and have the summer tires put on the car. I would say around a quarter of Germans do it themselves in their driveway or garage, but the vast majority pop into a tire shop for this.
In my case, the primary car has all-weather tires....so it doesn't matter. For the secondary car? My summer tires for the 2nd car are 'shot' and I need a new set. Well....with the tire shops closed, it's now a problem.
7. Ten of the eleven western German states are seriously affected by the virus. Oddly Saarbrucken (to the far west) is not that harshly affected. Same story for the five eastern German states. Why the Saarland is less affected? Unknown.
8. Some German farmers and associations are now warning about shortages of particular fruits/vegetables, with prices likely to escalate. Most of this issue goes to a lack of farm-workers at this key period of planting.
9. Bitburg police were called in for a birthday party that was in progress (more than a couple of people in attendance). You can probably get away with 2 or 3 people but neighbors are likely to report you if you they see six to ten people arriving at your doorstep.
10. The NFL (football league) announced they are full-speed ahead for the season to start on time.
11. The Economic Minister (Altmaier) says that the economy is 'crapped-out' (my term) for the first half of 2020. However, he is fairly optimistic for the second half to be a recovery period.
12. SPD political chiefs calling for revisions in the health system with identifiable problems now obvious. Cost factor? Best not to bring this up.
13. German hotels now admitting a serious financial crisis brewing if this continues on through the whole spring. Without tourism, out-of-country visitors....all of the major hotel markets are slumped right now (from the five-star to the cheap one-star hotels). Some discussion going on with the sales idea of vouchers (buying a 3-night stay right now for October or November, at a 2-night price for example).
14. Some discussion has started up on whether bearded guys should shave their beard off during this crisis period because it might be a 'magnet' for the virus. Mostly (99-percent) fake news, but it does generate a discussion with the PhD folks and the fake news crowd. If you used this logic....then the long-hair 'hippy-type' guy ought to shave his head bald. So it doesn't make a lot of sense.
15. Some discussion going on about the German breweries, and the supply chain for ingredients. If there is some production issue, and the pricing goes up.....the brewery crowd is not sure about a survivable outcome. Some are suggesting some governmental aid in this period. Their general problem is that every state has dozens of brewery operations which have fallen because of competition and simply 'better' beers. I can walk into my local beverage shop and there's over 200 beers which he markets (at least a quarter of them are the cheap and marginally tasting type....the Hamburg-Astra for example).
No comments:
Post a Comment