Schools, salons shut down in Germany as Merkel announces another COVID-19 lockdown

Germany has been gravely hit by the second wave of the coronavirus, and to contain the spread of the pandemic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced a semi-lockdown in the country from Wednesday.

Merkel announced the closure of schools and all non-essential services from Wednesday in a bid to contain the "exponential growth" after new clusters of infections were found.

"The corona situation is out of control," said Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder, who has assured all support to the Chancellor in this decision.

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As per the new lockdown rules, all schools will remain shut till January, and children will be returning to online classes with immediate effect. In addition to schools, all companies, too, have been suggested to shift to 'work-from-home' or offer extended company holidays.In the new partial lockdown, all hair salons and non -essential shops have also been asked to shut down till January 10.

Sale of alcohol has also been banned in public places, which has brought an outcry at the time of the year when mulled wine is largely popular due to the Christmas and winter season in Germany.

These new regulations have been taken afterMerkel with regional leaders of Germany's 16 states' agreement on Sunday.

The decision comes a few months after the country had reopened its economy completely, followed by an immediate closure of leisure activities. Over the last week, thecountry's disease control agency has raised concerns about the infections trend rising at an alarming rate.

"With increasing mobility and the therefore linked additional contacts in the pre-Christmas period, Germany is now in exponential growth of infections numbers," said the policy paper agreed by regional leaders and Merkel.

Continu9ing the same, Merkel said it was their "task to prevent an overload of our health systems and that's why there is an urgent need to take action."