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Angela Merkel has urged Germans to avoid visiting family members over Christmas and to use video calls instead.
Germany is struggling with a rise in coronavirus infections and deaths as celebrations of the country’s swift recovery from the first wave turn to anger over the lives lost during the second.
“Women and men stationed far away from home to ensure our security know what it means to have limited contact with loved ones,” the German chancellor said in her weekly video podcast.
“They know what it means to only be able to Skype over a long period of time instead of being together,” she said.
Germany recorded more than 31,000 new infections and 702 deaths on Saturday, the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said, representing a rise in cases of almost 60 per cent.
Germany went into a hard lockdown on 16 December, closing all non-essential shops and imposing curfews in some areas, with the measures expected to last until at least 10 January.
Ms Merkel has been making emotional appeals ahead of Christmas and the New Year, urging Germans to avoid unnecessary travel and to limit social contacts to an absolute minimum.
“What awaits many of us over Christmas is ordinary for people on missions abroad,” she said.
On 27 December, Germany is expected to start rolling out the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Germany’s BioNTech and US company Pfizer.
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