Coronavirus: Germans ‘sick and tired’ as long lockdown hits national mood

Once Europe’s poster child in the battle against Covid-19, Germany has turned into a problem child with the pandemic threatening to spin out of control – even after two months of a strict national lockdown that has frayed nerves, eroded faith in the government and darkened the country’s mood.

German leaders had to scramble on Monday to defend a controversial decision to shut its borders to the Czech Republic and parts of Austria to foreign travellers, including commuting workers, in a desperate bid to slow the spread of a highly infections coronavirus mutation from the United Kingdom.

The introduction of border controls against two of Germany’s European Union partners has stranded thousands of travellers and freight, causing factory disruptions. The step came unexpectedly just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a third extension of the increasingly loathed shutdown of shops, restaurants, theatres, gyms, museums, nightlife and most public life that is putting businesses in jeopardy.

“There’s not a day that goes by in which I don’t think about what these constraints mean for people across Germany,” Merkel said after extending shutdown measures introduced on November 2 - and broadened in December - until at least March 7.

In an unusually candid admission to parliament on Thursday, she acknowledged Germany made mistakes in not shutting down sooner and more comprehensively. She was referring to when the second wave arrived in September after Germans enjoyed most of the spring and summer with hardly any restrictions or precautions – precious time wasted that is now hurting Europe’s leading economy.