Angela Merkel warns Germany's lockdown against new Covid-19 variant will last 10 weeks Chancellor fears the spread of viral mutation that has ram

German Chancellor Angel Merkel warned that a new strict lockdown would last for at least 10 weeks after a strain of Covid-19 that surfaced in Britain could have triggered a rapid increase in contagion rates.

Infections and fatalities have roughly doubled since the end of November in Germany, rising to nearly 2 million and almost 42,000 respectively. The infection rate has been climbing in recent days and reached 165 cases per 100,000 people on Tuesday, more than triple the level the government has determined to be manageable without wide-ranging contact restrictions.

German officials are on alert over a strain of the virus that could be more than 50 per cent more transmissible. Since being detected in south-east England in mid-December, British hospitals have been swamped with Covid-19 patients as infections surge despite a faster pace of vaccinations than anywhere else in Europe.

The stricter lockdown was introduced across Germany after curbs imposed on December 16 had a minimal effect on curtailing the outbreak. New lockdown orders are now being extended across all 16 of Germany's states.

Germany also wants to ensure laboratories test whether Covid-19 patients have the mutated strain of the virus first found in the UK.

“I know that these are once again particular difficulties, hardships for many,” Health Minister Jens Spahn said. “Also social hardships, but at the moment that is the arena in which the virus is spreading above all others.”

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