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Coronavirus: How can workers and businesses benefit from Germany’s new rescue package?

After a decade as Europe's leading disciple of fiscal virtue, Germany is unleashing a flood of government cash to counter the devastating economic impact of the novel coronavirus.

Coronavirus: How can workers and businesses benefit from Germany's new rescue package?
Photo: DPA

Here are the most important steps ministers have asked parliament to approve by the end of this week.

READ ALSO: Germany agrees on economic package worth hundreds of billions in coronavirus fight

What will happen in the social welfare sector?

Eviction due to not paying the rent will be prohibited between April 1st to September 30th, and there will be need to prove this, states the draft legislation.

In the case of Hartz IV welfare applications, the property audit and the examination of the amount of the rent paid for the apartment are to be suspended for six months.

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READ ALSO: German government promises relief for renters amid coronavirus crisis

Expanded regulations on reduced working hours will also make it easier for companies to keep employees instead of sending them into unemployment.

The government also plans to grant an additional 1.2 million people basic income support.

Meanwhile, people in Germany who lose their jobs altogether because of the crisis will not face means-testing for unemployment benefits until the end of June.

For families with income shortfalls, the government plans to ensure easier access to the child supplement: Instead of checking the income of the last six months, only the income of the last month will be examined. Parents with declining incomes due to needing to tend to their children will also receive help.

What is planned for small businesses?

Direct financial injections: Germany says it will offer €50 billion of support for small and one-man-band companies, like photographers, musicians or carers.

Depending on the number of employees, individual companies will receive up to €15,000 each to keep the lights on.

Meanwhile freelancers applying for unemployment benefit will not be forced to seek new work.

READ ALSO: Germany plans €40 billion rescue package for freelancers and small businesses

What should medium sized and larger companies get?

For medium-sized companies, an unlimited credit programme is to be made available through the state development bank KfW. 

The federal government wants to give them warranties worth billions and take over debts. When the crisis is over, they are to be privatised again. Companies in Germany will additionally be able to pay their taxes later.

Top-ups for workers

Berlin has eased access to a programme that tops up workers' pay with government cash when their hours are slashed.

The scheme is widely credited with saving large numbers of jobs during the financial crisis of 2008-9.

Germany expects more than two million people to work shorter hours in the coronavirus crisis, far outstripping the peak seen over a decade ago.

At over €10 billion, the massive estimated costs are nevertheless well below the BA's cash reserves of €26 billion.

Backstop for big business

Germany wants to make sure bigger businesses can throw open their doors again once the danger has passed.

The country must avoid a “fire sale” of its economic crown jewels, economy minister Peter Altmaier has said.

Germany will create a €600 billion “economic stabilisation fund” offering €400 billion of guarantees for companies' debts, €100 billion to lend directly to or buy stakes in troubled firms, and €100 billion to fund state investment bank KfW.

To keep their liquidity flowing, companies will also be able to delay tax payments.

First in the queue for actual cash injections – rather than guarantees – could be the suffering tourism and services industries.

Airline group Lufthansa has cancelled around 90 percent of flights in the coming weeks, while tour operator TUI has already applied for state aid.

End to debt taboo

To beef up its financial firepower and compensate for falling tax revenue as the economy shrinks, the government plans to borrow around €156 billion this year.

“We will fight with all our might against this crisis calling into question healthcare for our citizens or economic activity in this country,” Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said.

As well as upending a years-long “black zero” no-new-debts policy, the new borrowing will blast through a deficit limit inscribed into the constitution in 2009.

Ending the crisis “comes first”, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said, adding “we will see at the end of that where our budget stands”.

Cash for hospitals

Health Minister Jens Spahn said Monday that his department would have an additional €10 billion this year to boost the health system.

Hospitals will get financial help to add beds and buy equipment like respirators, with Berlin aiming to double intensive care capacity from the 25,000 beds presently available.

And pay for doctors, nurses and students and retired medical professionals enlisted into the battle against the virus will be increased.

READ ALSO: Germany ramps up intensive care and hospital capacity in coronavirus fight

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HEALTH

Could there be a new wave of Covid-19 in Germany this autumn?

It’s back again: amid sinking temperatures, the incidence of Covid-19 has been slowly rising in Germany. But is this enough to merit worrying about the virus?

Could there be a new wave of Covid-19 in Germany this autumn?

More people donning face masks in supermarkets, friends cancelling plans last minute due to getting sick with Covid-19. We might have seen some of those familiar reminders recently that the coronavirus is still around, but could there really be a resurgence of the virus like we experienced during the pandemic years?

According to virologists, the answer seems to be ‘maybe’: since July, the number of people newly infected with Covid-19 has been slowly rising from a very low level.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), nine people per 100,000 inhabitants became newly infected in Germany last week. A year ago, there were only around 270 reported cases.

Various Corona variants are currently on the loose in the country. According to the RKI,  the EG.5 (also called Eris) and XBB.1.16 lines were each detected in the week ending September 3rd with a share of just under 23 percent. 

The highly mutated variant BA.2.86 (Pirola), which is currently under observation by the World Health Organisation (WHO), also arrived in the country this week, according to RKI. 

High number of unreported case

The RKI epidemiologists also warned about a high number of unreported cases since hardly any testing is done. They pointed out that almost half of all registered sewage treatment plants report an increasing viral load in wastewater tests.

The number of hospital admissions has also increased slightly, but are still a far cry from the occupation rate amid the pandemic. Last week it was two per 100,000 inhabitants. In the intensive care units, only 1.2 percent of all beds are occupied by Covid-19 patients.

Still, a good three-quarters (76.4 percent) of people in Germany have been vaccinated at least twice and thus have basic immunity, reported RKI. 

Since Monday, doctors’ offices have been vaccinating with the adapted vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer, available to anyone over 12 years old, with a vaccine for small children set to be released the following week and one for those between 5 and 11 to come out October 2nd.

But Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has so far only recommended that people over 60 and those with pre-existing conditions get vaccinated.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Who should get a Covid jab this autumn in Germany?

“The pandemic is over, the virus remains,” he said. “We cannot predict the course of coming waves of corona, but it is clear that older people and people with pre-existing conditions remain at higher risk of becoming severely ill from Covid-19”

The RKI also recommended that people with a cold voluntarily wear a mask. Anyone exhibiting cough, cold, sore throat or other symptoms of a respiratory illness should voluntarily stay at home for three to five days and take regular corona self-tests. 

However, further measures such as contact restrictions are not necessary, he said.

One of many diseases

As of this autumn, Covid-19 could be one of many respiratory diseases. As with influenza, there are no longer absolute infection figures for coronavirus.

Saarbrücken pharmacist Thorsten Lehr told German broadcaster ZDF that self-protection through vaccinations, wearing a mask and getting tested when symptoms appear are prerequisites for surviving the Covid autumn well. 

Only a new, more aggressive mutation could completely turn the game around, he added.

On April 7th of this year, Germany removed the last of its over two-year long coronavirus restrictions, including mask-wearing in some public places.

READ ALSO: German doctors recommend Covid-19 self-tests amid new variant

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