Merkel sets out plan to take control of Germany’s Covid response

Bill would give national government power to impose restrictions in states with high infection rates

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The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, plans to take control over the Covid-19 response from federal states to impose restrictions on regions with high numbers of new infections, as the head of the country's disease control agency said Germany needed a two- to four-week lockdown to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.

Germany is in the middle of a third wave, so the federal government and the states have agreed to add to the national legislation," a spokesperson for the German chancellor told reporters on Friday.