Merkel admits to losing sleep over pandemic, warns against "false hope"

Chancellor Angela Merkel has admitted to losing sleep over the coronavirus pandemic, saying she finds it difficult to “switch off” as she tosses and turns over difficult decisions. While saying that the drop in infection numbers represented a “small light at the end of the tunnel” she warned people not to get ahead of themselves, with the new mutations of COVID-19 causing much uncertainty. 

“It’s hard to switch off”, says Angela Merkel

In a rare televised interview with German broadcaster RTL, Angela Merkel, who is normally famously tight-lipped when it comes to her personal feelings, said that the pandemic had caused her a great deal of anguish. 

“I do wake up at night sometimes and think about everything,” she said. “This is a difficult time for me too; our decisions need to be clearly thought out and I turn things over and over in my mind before reaching a decision. It’s hard to switch off.” 

She emphasised that the decisions to impose and repeatedly extend lockdown restrictions had not been taken lightly: “Again and again I have to make tough decisions,” she said. “I too would like to have something good to announce. But we can’t give false hope, so I always try to be realistic.”

Merkel sceptical about easing lockdown measures

While acknowledging that the falling coronavirus infection rate in Germany was a good sign, Merkel also made it clear that she is still sceptical about easing lockdown measures. Stating that she did not want to commit herself before seeing how the next few days pan out, she said she did not want to create “false hope” in the face of all the uncertainty caused by the spread of new, highly-contagious mutations of the virus. 

Merkel’s next conference with the federal states, at which they will discuss whether to extend or ease the current lockdown restrictions, is scheduled for next Wednesday. Germany’s Federal Health Minister, Jens Spahn, suggested this week that restrictions could be lifted by spring, but Merkel said on Thursday that “we have to be very, very careful so that people don’t die in the last few metres.” 

On Friday, the Robert Koch Institute reported 12.908 new coronavirus infections within 24 hours, as well as 855 deaths. The nationwide seven day incidence, which has been falling for weeks after reaching a peak of 197,6 on December 22, reached 79,9 on Friday morning. The federal government is aiming to push this value below 50.