German officials strike deal to extend lockdowns through March 28: report

German officials agreed to extend lockdown measures through most of March after a seven-hour meeting on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and a number of other top officials were reportedly unable to agree on a path to reopen Germany’s economy during the negotiations, a person familiar told Bloomberg, while agreeing that lockdown measures would remain in place until March 28.

The dispute over reopening stems from a disagreement between Merkel’s government and local leaders who do not wish to tie reopening milestones to the country’s 7-day infection rate, according to the unnamed official.

On the same day, Germany’s top health institute said that nearly half of the country’s new infections over the past week were the result of a new variant of COVID-19 believed to have originated in the U.K. and thought to be more contagious that previous variants, The Associated Press reported. That rate of U.K.-strain cases has surged more than 20 percent in the past two weeks.

The county is also reportedly struggling to increase the rate at which Germans are vaccinated against COVID-19; according to the AP, just about 5.3 percent of Germany’s populace had been given the first dose of a two-dose vaccine.

Just under 71,000 Germans have died from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, a number that puts Germany far lower than many other European countries in terms of deaths per 100,000 people.

German health officials moved to increase lockdown measures previously in December, while the country at the time faced a surge in cases and deaths from the disease.