German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised to negotiate with her colleagues to close all ski resorts in Europe. She is quoted by T-Online.
“We will try to coordinate the closure of all ski resorts with European countries. Unfortunately, it will not be easy because of Austria’s position,” she said. According to Merkel, there is no need to soften the restrictions yet. She promised that Berlin will continue to provide state support to its citizens.
RBC notes that earlier the head of the Austrian Ministry of Finance Gernot Blumel refused to close the ski resorts. He insisted that the EU will have to compensate for the losses of the industry. The French and Italian authorities have already announced the closure of the resorts.
At the end of November, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the number of people infected with coronavirus in October exceeded the figures for the first six months of the pandemic. “Throughout Europe and North America, hospitals and intensive care units continue to fill up,” he said.
An outbreak of COVID-19 pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus was first recorded in December 2019 in Wuhan. On March 11, WHO announced that the situation could be characterized as a pandemic. According to the latest data, more than 57 million people are infected worldwide.