Germany

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s leaders agreed Friday to toughen requirements for entry to restaurants and bars, and decided to shorten quarantine and self-isolation periods as the omicron variant spreads fast through the country.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the 16 state governors built on restrictions introduced just after Christmas that limited private gatherings to 10 people and effectively shut nightclubs.

05 Jan 2022; MEMO: A member of the European Parliament, Moritz Korner, suggested to the European Central Bank (ECB) on Sunday that BionTech founders couple, Ozlem Tureci and Ugur Sahin, to be depicted on one of the Euro bank notes, DW reports.

"Important European figures like the BioNTech founding couple, Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, should be printed on the new Euro notes," said Körner,

"Their work has saved the lives of millions of Europeans." he also added.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — OPEC and allied oil-producing countries are expected to press ahead Tuesday with restoring cutbacks in output made during the depths of the coronavirus pandemic as hopes grow that travel and demand for fuel will hold up despite the rapid spread of the omicron variant.

BERLIN, January 3. /TASS/: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz considers efforts to build relations with Russia as an important factor and is going to place this issue under his personal control and expects to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin already in January, the German newspaper Bild reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.

TASS has no official comment from Berlin on this information.

BERLIN, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Germany will pull the plug on three of its last six nuclear power stations on Friday, another step towards completing its withdrawal from nuclear power as it turns its focus to renewables.

The government decided to speed up its phasing out of nuclear power following Japan's Fukushima reactor meltdown in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the coastal plant in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier.

BERLIN, December 29. /TASS/: The German Cabinet confirmed Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s advisor Jens Ploetner’s plans to hold negotiations with Russian Deputy Administration head Dmitry Kozak, Cabinet spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said Wednesday.

BERLIN (AP) — The World Health Organization says the number of COVID-19 cases recorded worldwide increased by 11% last week compared with the previous week, with the biggest increase in the Americas. The gain followed a gradual increase since October.

The U.N. health agency said in its weekly epidemiological report released late Tuesday that there were nearly 4.99 million newly reported cases around the world from Dec. 20-26.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister said Friday that the proportion of coronavirus infections with the new omicron variant will increase sharply in the days ahead, and he appealed to people to take steps to avoid infection during Christmas festivities.

German authorities are anticipating another wave of COVID-19 cases as a result of omicron, though so far the delta variant remains dominant in the country and case numbers have drifted downward after spiking last month.

BERLIN, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The Omicron variant will become the dominant coronavirus strain in Germany within three weeks and the country has ordered 80 million doses of Omicron-specific vaccine for delivery in April or May, health officials said on Wednesday.

"An offensive booster campaign is our most important building block in the fight against Omicron," German health minister Karl Lauterbach told a news conference on Wednesday.

"The level of protection against severe COVID-19 symptoms after a booster shot is very high. I would estimate it goes well over 90%," he said.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The pipeline is built and being filled with natural gas. But Russia’s Nord Stream 2 faces a rocky road before any gas flows to Germany, with its new leaders adopting a more skeptical tone toward the project and tensions ratcheting up over Russia’s troop buildup at the Ukrainian border.