Germany is expected to lift the worldwide travel warning for its citizens in mid-June, according to Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD). Maas said after a video conference with his European counterparts that the travel warning could be replaced by country-specific travel advice from June 15 . However, it is still too early to say in which countries summer vacations are most likely to be possible. (https://www.zeit.de/entdecken/reisen/2020-04/reisewarnung-verlaengerung-sommerurlaub-auswaertiges-amt-bundesregierung)
At the cabinet meeting, the federal government agreed on an extension of continued wages for mothers and fathers in the corona crisis. Parents who are unable to work due to corona-related daycare and school closures receive wage replacement from the state for significantly longer, up to 20 weeks for single parents. (https://www.zeit.de/video/2020-05/6157969001001/corona-krise-verlaengerung-der-lohnfortzahlung-fuer-eltern)
The retail trade in Germany suffered a sharp drop in sales due to closed shops , as the Federal Statistical Office has just announced. In April, sales decreased by 6.5 percent on a like-for-like basis compared to the same month in the previous year. Compared to the previous month of March, sales fell by a good 5 percent - this is the strongest decline compared to a previous month since January 2007. (https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/2020-05/rezession-einzelhandel-corona-krise-umsatzrueckgang-selbstaendige)
In May, 7.3 million people in Germany were on short-time work, according to exclusive calculations by the Ifo Institute. "This number has never been so high," says Ifo labor market expert Sebastian Link. "In the financial crisis, short-time working peaked in May 2009 at just under 1.5 million people." In the corona crisis, companies originally registered 10.1 million workers for short-time working. According to data from the Ifo Institute, 71.6 percent of them were actually sent on short-time work. (https://www.ifo.de/node/55800)
The number of unemployed in Germany rose again in May due to the consequences of the Corona crisis compared to April by 169,000 to 2,813 million people. The unemployment rate rose by 0.3 points to 6.1 percent, said the Federal Employment Agency in Nuremberg. Compared to May 2019, the number of unemployed was 577,000 higher. (https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2020-06/bundesarbeitsagentur-arbeitslosenzahl-steigt-im-mai-um-169-000)
In the past few weeks, the number of Corona patients receiving intensive medical care has decreased significantly. According to the intensive care register of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), as of June 2, 689 people suffering from Covid-19 were cared for in intensive care units - about half of them were ventilated. In mid-April, more than 2,900 patients had been in the intensive care units at times. According to the RKI, the number of reproductions, or R-value for short , has dropped below the critical mark of 1.0, namely to 0.89. This means that an infected person infects less than another person on average. (https://www.zeit.de/wissen/gesundheit/2020-06/coronavirus-infektionszahlen-niedrig-r-wert-goettingen)
