Coronavirus: Bavaria becomes first German state to ban people from going outside

Bavaria has become the first German state to ban people from going outside in a bid to halt the spread of coronavirus.

The German state will impose general restrictions on going outdoors for two weeks, state premier Markus Soeder said today.

He said: ‘It’s not easy to take these decisions. We take these decisions according to the best of our knowledge and conscience. There will be a Bavaria after corona, but it will be a stronger one if we don’t look away.’

As of today, the number of German cases of COVID-19 rose by 2,958 overnight to 13,957. While deaths from the virus rose by 11 to 31.

Germany is also considering imposing a national lockdown if they fail to obey instructions to stay indoors this weekend.

Helge Braun, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, told Spiegel magazine: ‘We will look at the behaviour of the population this weekend. Saturday will be a decisive day.’

‘We hope that the population understands the current measures and is ready to scale down social life. If we look at neighbouring countries, it’s clear that (lockdown) would be an enormous extra burden,’ said Braun.

‘Unless everybody fundamentally changes their behaviour, then we won’t be able to avoid harsher measures and sanctions,’ said Winfried Kretschmann, state premier of the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

‘If people don’t do it themselves, then we could make such decisions,’ said Armin Laschet, leader of Germany’s most populous state North-Rhine Westphalia, which has been worst hit by the virus so far.