schools

«Lessons at 7 in the morning to decongest public transport»

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Lessons in secondary schools of 2nd grade will be able to start from 7 to 8.30 to help reduce the load on public transport at peak times. This is the suggestion of the Scientific Technical Committee provided to the Ministry of Education for the reopening of schools from 14 September. “Among the system measures – the scientists write – it is also necessary to evaluate the possible impact of the movements related to the mobility of the students. The ISTAT data reported in the “Technical document on the hypothesis of the re-modulation of the containment measures in relation to collective land transport, with a view to the recovery of commuting, in the context of the emergency from SARS-CoV-2” highlight critical elements in the major metropolitan areas, during working days, in the peak times of the morning and afternoon, with daily profiles also confirmed by the processing of mobile telephony data of the main Italian cities ».


Coronavirus, 658 new cases in Leicester in two weeks. «Crowd in pubs, cities at risk of lockdown»

For experts who act as government consultants, “The great diversity of the school realities distributed in our country, with peculiarities in relation to the order of school (users, educational programs, organizational-didactic methods), school structures and infrastructures, geographic location, social fabric, etc. , they require a reflection and careful evaluation specifically contextualized ». Therefore, “it is a priority that each scholastic reality proceeds to a mapping of the spaces destined to all the didactic activities in relation to the number of pupils and staff in order to ensure as much as possible the teaching in the presence, albeit with possible hourly reductions / reductions”. Distance teaching in the months of the emergency “certainly represented a prompt and effective response from schools and led to an acceleration of new skills for school staff and students; in view of the reopening of the didactic activities in the presence, the remote modality can represent an integrative and not a substitute moment, differently applied and commensurate with the age groups of the students ».

Zangrillo: «The virus has not changed but has lost its charge. Disoriented and tormented Italy must start again »

Last updated: 16:43

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“Europe, the second wave as possible in the autumn. New cases with reopening schools”

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Coronavirusthe warning comes fromWho: “The second wave of Covid19 as possible in the autumn. The reopening of the schools resulted in new cases”. “We are not out of the darkness. The lockdown have allowed us to gain time. Where, as we have opportunity, we must seize it in order to strengthen our preparation. This means hoping for the best, but prepare for the worst: a likely return of Covid19through Countries, regions, cities and communities. Our priority is to prepare for the autumn”. To underline this point in a briefing with the Russian press is Hans Kluge, regional director for EuropeThe world health organization (Who).


“Covid-19 – reiterates – is still in an active phase in many Countries. It is essential that we continue to recover and rebuild normal life after the lockdownbut it is also very important for the authorities to invest in having a system of aggressive monitoring, testing and traceability to avoid measures additional in the weeks and months to come in case of return of the virus“.

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The who: “Reopening of the schools has resulted in new cases”. “It was shot in a sort of shot of warning: the reopening of the school in some Countries has led to increases in the local number of cases. We must be diligent and loosen the restrictions with care”. The highlights of a briefing with the Russian press Hans Kluge, the regional director for Europe of the world health Organization (Who).

Who: “Tripled the Countries with increasing incidence“. “In the last month, the number of Countries in europe that have shown significant increases in the cumulative incidence has more than tripled, from 6 to 21. Covid-19 is still in an active phase in many Countries”. To underline this point in a briefing with the Russian press is Hans Kluge, the regional director for Europe of the world health Organization (Who).

“The virus,” she recalls, caused the death of nearly half a million people around the world, and each is a tragedy. The number of confirmed cases worldwide has exceeded 8 million. The european Region accounts for 31% of cases and 43% of deaths globally. After a few weeks of cases in decline in some Countries, the number of new cases has now stabilised to an average of between 17,000 and 20,000 cases per day in the whole european Region”.

Last updated: 15:03

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Italy could reopen some nurseries and kindergartens

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Small groups of 3 to 6 children aged 0 to 6, controlled temperature at the entrance … According to the daily Corriere della Sera, the Italian Ministry of Education is studying the possibility of reopening nurseries and kindergartens before summer. In such a configuration, children would not wear masks but the teaching staff would be forced to do so.

As the closure of schools until September becomes very detrimental, especially for working women, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has regularly stressed the potential for contagion that children may have and the risk of seeing the pandemic resume and of infect the teachers. It should be noted that Italy has the oldest faculty in the OECD countries, with almost 60% of the teachers being over the age of 50.

8.5 million young people without school

More than 8.5 million young Italians have been out of school since the country’s containment began on March 10. And, due to the lack of computers at home, many were unable to follow school programs remotely. Is this observation that prompted Patrizio Bianchi, the head of the committee responsible for preparing the start of the September school year, said in the daily La Repubblica, that the teaching should be ” revolutionized “?

According to him, three billion euros will have to be invested each year, and this for five years, to restructure an education system out of breath and develop distance education. Patrizio Bianchi advocates the establishment of “ a large digital platform entirely dedicated to school education. It will be the basis of a new teaching style “

Rethinking the education system and methods

The manager also intends to develop the school outdoors, capitalizing on the specific advantages of the various regions of the peninsula: “ Trentino (North) will have to take advantage of its woods, Milan of its museums, Rome of its parks “, He suggested …

As for the arrangement of the classes, it will also have to be redesigned, with far fewer children, a semicircle arrangement and no longer in rows … while the teaching profession calls for a necessary ” revaluation “

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the health framework becomes clearer, the concern grows

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“The health protocol? The two 60-page document? ” Ronan Lessard, director of the Saint-Joseph school in Elven in the Morbihan, is not the only one to be perplexed by the project which leaked on April 29 in The world and whose final version is expected on 1er may. Measures of physical distance, disinfection of premises, wearing of a mask or hand washing: particularly dense, the health protocol sets out the requirements prior to the reopening of educational establishments.

→ LIVE. Coronavirus: the latest information in France and worldwide

Concerns about canteens and disinfection of premises

Principal of Jean-Rostand college, in Quetigny, in the Dijon academy, Emmanuel Masson still salutes content “Quality, thought out and thought out, with significant scientific contributions. The state had to set a national framework, that was one of our main demands. “

But a number of questions remain unanswered, starting with school meals: “This is a point that particularly questions me. Class service as recommended is not achievable in my opinion “, believes this member of the SNPDEN-UNSA union. “The canteen of my school is outsourced, the municipality wonders if it will be able to reopen it. If the town hall is unable to open a canteen, how can I be able to open my school? “, worries about Ronan Lessard.

The disinfection of premises also poses important challenges: “In our country as in many other schools, it is directly the employees, that is the nursery assistants, the school principals and the teachers, who do the cleaning. Will we have to disinfect? It is not quite in our mission letter “, Ronan Lessard is still moved.

School administrators are already calling on local authorities, town halls and departments to obtain the necessary resources. But these are reduced to the same uncertainties: “How many agents will I need to clean the schools four times a day? With which products? Aren’t they toxic? I’m facing an equation with fifty unknowns “, regrets Émile-Roger Lombertie, mayor of Limoges and former doctor.

“At this age, there are still children who want to play”

The ambiguities around the staff dismay both the local authorities and the teaching staff, whether it is the number of municipal agents mobilized, teachers, or simply students: “There is a veil around the volunteering of parents who choose whether or not to send their children to school. When I imagine welcoming 180 students, maybe I will find myself with a lot more on May 18 “, fears Emmanuel Masson, who recalls that “One of the keys to ensuring the safety of children is to limit the number of children”.

Indeed, the health protocol imposes strict measures in terms of physical distance, as well as increased monitoring of the hygiene of the students, who will have to wash their hands when arriving at school, after and before going to the toilet, meals, playtime or after coughing, sneezing: “Without staff and with 220 children to manage, how do you want to be behind each student who goes to the bathroom? ” alarmed Ronan Lessard.

And the problem is the same in the colleges, which will first welcome the youngest, in classes of 6e and 5e : “I hear the call to good citizenship, but at this age, there are still children who want to play and who are not always aware of the risks”, recalls Emmanuel Masson. Games are also prohibited by protocol.

If the means are lacking, no reopening possible

As for the equipment, it will be up to the communities to make masks and hydroalcoholic gels available to establishments. “Every day we take stock of needs and orders, says Émile-Roger Lombertie. We have mobilized all the businesses in the city, and so far we have managed to recover enough hydroalcoholic gel. But we would rather teach children to wash their hands properly with soap, which is less toxic in the long run. “

In establishments where resources are lacking, the decision should be clear: schools will not reopen. “Fortunately, it is a prescribing document. It’s reassuring for us, the executives, it’s an element of criminal security, specifies Emmanuel Masson. I adapt my reception capacity to the document, if I am able to fulfill all the conditions I reopen, otherwise no. “

A work that promises to be complex, however. “ Our 1er may be hectic, coward Ronan Lessard. I’m going to spend my day going through the final protocol and wondering if I would have the capacity or not to reopen my school. “

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Why does California have low COVID-19 numbers in the US drama? – Telemundo 52

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LOS ANGELES – Early confinement and other prevention measures promoted by the state government have allowed California, with more than 40 million inhabitants and some 300 deaths from COVID-19, to become an example of how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic in United States.

So far, the nation’s largest metropolis, Los Angeles, with more than 10 million citizens, has recorded fewer than 6,000 cases and 132 deaths, far from New York City, which has 8 and a half million inhabitants. and it has confirmed some 130,000 infections and more than 4,000 deaths.

“California has been doing quite well in the COVID-19 pandemic, with a relatively low number of infected per 100,000 people and a low death rate,” said Professor Karin Michels, head of the Department of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES

California Governor Gavin Newsom was one of the first in the country to enact relatively strict confinement, allowing only “essential” activities such as going to the grocery store and pharmacy, and exercising respect for safety distances between people.

In contrast, eight states – Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming – have not mandated their residents to stay home.

“The governor issued ‘home security’ and ‘shelter’ orders relatively quickly. Universities like UCLA and other large employers closed even earlier and sent people to work, teach and study from home,” said Michels, who has extensive experience in disease prevention, public health and statistical methods.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, California schools may continue to be closed until the end of August.

Newsom also took the initiative to decree the closure of schools, which will remain closed until next year, as a preventive measure; in asking President Donald Trump to send a hospital ship to Los Angeles to support local hospitals before it reached a hypothetical peak in the number of cases, which has not yet occurred; and in closing the state’s beaches and parks.

Another point that seems to have helped so far in the exceptional case of California against COVID-19, according to experts, is the low population density of the state, which reduces the possibility of contagion and allows better compliance with the rules of social distancing.

“TO
 Despite having a large population, Californians do not live in
as dense as New Yorkers. Cities spread with
Few skyscrapers: Relative to other states, many more people in
 California lives in houses, not in apartment buildings or buildings
high, “summarizes Michels, who is based on data from a study of his
college.

YOUNG PEOPLE, LESS DEATHS PER CAPITA

California has had a much lower per capita death rate than most of the nation’s largest states, with the exception of Texas.

“The state has a low average age and a high
density of healthcare facilities, which may have contributed to
 the low mortality rate, “explained Michels.

According to a recent study published in The Lancet, the mortality rate among those infected with 20 years of age is 0.03%, while for those 70 years of age it is 8.6%.

Cautious tone

The
 Californian authorities have projected alarming numbers in the
recent weeks, although so far those estimates have not been
compliment.

Newsom himself foresaw two weeks ago that more than half the state’s population, or about 25 million people, would become infected, so he begged its residents to follow the guidelines to the letter.

For his part, the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, did not hesitate to forecast that the city “would follow in the footsteps of New York” in number of cases, a catastrophic scenario that is still far away.

COVID-19 affects children differently than adults. This is what the doctors say in the following video.

The United States on Monday exceeded 10,000 deaths from coronavirus, with 10,335 and almost 350,000 infected, making it the third country with the most deaths after Italy and Spain, according to the count of the Center for Systems, Science and Engineering (CSSE) from Johns Hopkins University (Maryland).

The new data is known after this Sunday
President Donald Trump, during his usual daily press conference,
make sure “this will probably be the hardest week, between this
week and next, and there will be a lot of death. ”

The state of New York, the great epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, accumulates with these latest figures a total of 4,758 deaths and 130,689 confirmed cases of COVID-19, compared to just over 122,000 that it had a day earlier.

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Mayors face the challenge of reopening schools

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While confinement, with its economic and social consequences, has already occupied them a lot in recent weeks, the end of compulsory home maintenance now promises them very short nights. Like the prefects, the mayors are on the front line of deconfinement. A poisoned gift for many of them. “The time left to organize everything is short. But working in an emergency is never good “, remarks Nicolas Floch, head of Saint-Pol-de-Léon (6,600 inhabitants) in Finistère.

It is obviously the reopening of schools within a dozen days that concerns these elected officials. How best to welcome children? Do lunches in class offer all health guarantees? What level of disinfection should be planned for the premises? A doctor by profession, Nicolas Floch would have preferred a return to school in September, the time to put everything in place. But I understand that parents have to start working again…

“We will follow the instructions, listen to the parents”

Mayor of Domfront in Orne (3,500 inhabitants), Bernard Soul is also aware of the importance of the task at hand. But he remains a philosopher. We will have to live with the virus, we have to accept it. “This former nurse does trust in collective intelligence for the best reopening of schools. We’ll follow directions, listen to parents. With common sense.

In La Roche-sur-Yon (55,000 inhabitants), the prospect of this reopening of schools does not worry the Vendéen Luc Bouard. This is not the right term. “But like the Finistérien Nicolas Floch, the mayor would preferred a return to school in September. What worries me is the lack of human resources to guarantee the fifteen pupils per class and the cleaning of the premises. It is possible to do your best, provided you have sufficient staff.

Additional legal protection for mayors

This central positioning of local elected representatives at the heart of deconfinement necessarily increases their responsibilities in the event of possible problems in schools, in particular. They therefore need additional legal protection. To this end, the centrist senator Hervé Maurey has just tabled a bill so that the responsibility of a local elected representative, called to implement a decision of the state, cannot be hired if it does not have the appropriate means ”.

The text was placed on the agenda of the Senate on May 27, 2020. But Hervé Maurey should already be able to discuss it next week, during the examination of the government’s plan to deconfinement in the upper house. L he mayors are anxious about the reopening of schools. We must help them ”,insists the senator from Eure.

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California universities sued for reimbursements related to coronavirus – Telemundo Denver

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Students from the California State University and University of California systems filed a lawsuit against to demand reimbursements of some campus fees since the virus pandemic closed schools and forced online learning.

The class action lawsuits, filed in the federal courts in Los Angeles and Oakland, allege that systems serving more than 700,000 students have refused to reimburse unused portions of fees for campus-related services that semester students spring are not using, such as health centers, student association fees and student centers.

The campuses have been closed since March due to the COVID-19 outbreak and sporting events have been canceled.

“The effect of CSU’s COVID-19-related protocols and messages is that all students have been forced to leave campus, unless they really have no other safe place to go,” the Los Angeles lawsuit says.

“For students who remain on campus, services are now extremely limited. For students who do not live on campus, there is no reason to come to campus, as all activities have been canceled. ”

Messages seeking comment from both systems were not immediately returned Monday night.

Fees ranged from around $ 850 to more than $ 4,000 for CSU students for the 2019-2020 academic year, while UC’s basic services fee for students was around $ 1,100, while fees related to specific campuses doubled that or more, depending on demand.

Medical students from California State University help inform the community in their own language.

“It is inappropriate for them to attempt to withhold what amounts to many millions of dollars in total on the campus fees they charged their students, despite the termination of the services that covered these fees,” said Adam Levitt, one of the attorneys who they filed the lawsuits.

“A college education is already a monumental expense for students and their families, and essentially not offering them relief on these material expenses, particularly at a time when millions of Americans are struggling financially, not only is deaf, but also unfair and illegal” .

Similar lawsuits were previously filed against universities in Arizona and against Liberty University, a nonprofit evangelical Christian university in Virginia.

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Despite Corona, the first schools reopen: lessons with mouthguards and soap

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Black and yellow pushed through the rapid opening of schools in North Rhine-Westphalia – despite massive protests.

A student wearing a face mask during an exam.

The new normal in schools Photo: Jonas Güttler / dpa

BOCHUM taz | Christiane Künhaupt, Vice Headmistress of the Elly-Heuss-Knapp vocational college in Düsseldorf, has had four days of stress and fear behind her. “I slept badly,” says the 52-year-old on the first day of the careful school openings in North Rhine-Westphalia. The college has 3,000 pupils, which offers 42 courses up to the Abitur. Around 500 were loaded on Thursday, for which exams are due in a few weeks. “75 to 80 percent of them are there,” Künhaupt estimates on Thursday morning – I would have expected less. “

Many young people have the same concerns as the deputy headmistress: How big is the risk of infection if school starts again after six and a half weeks of corona isolation and distance learning? Can distance rules be observed and infections avoided? “There was a lot of fear, especially in front of the subway,” says Künhaupt.

The vocational college has therefore made provisions. The college of teachers has decided to enter the school only with a mask. “We also train tailors, so we have a lot of sewing machines,” explains Katja Frech, teacher of German and design. The pupils sewed 360 masks for self-protection.

The college is thus suddenly a pioneer: On Wednesday, North Rhine-Westphalia’s black and yellow state government, under pressure from the public and virologists, announced a mask requirement, which should also apply to public buildings from next Monday. “In the late Wednesday afternoon, we suddenly received 2,000 masks,” says Vice-Head of School Künhaupt. On Tuesday, on the other hand, she assessed the situation as “catastrophic” – even soap dispensers and towel racks, a prerequisite for the hygiene rules advised by FDP state minister Yvonne Gebauer, were still missing.

Quickly return to normal

Gebauer and CDU Prime Minister Armin Laschet put the schools under massive time pressure. Laschet wants to get back to “responsible normality” as quickly as possible in the fight for the chancellor’s candidacy. And Gebauer follows her federal party leader Christian Lindner, who is drumming for a quick end to the corona restrictions. Neither of them wanted to know about the appointment of the country heads with Chancellor Angela Merkel to open the schools again on May 4th. Gebauer announced on Saturday evening via email that it would start again on Thursday.

Violent criticism came from the city day. The school authorities would need at least one week for corona protection standards, rumbled the CDU chairman of the NRW City Day, Thomas Hunsteger-Petermann.

But teacher associations and the opposition are also skeptical. There are calls for school boycott on the Internet. “Anger and frustration” prevail in schools due to the lack of health protection, says Maike Finnern, chairwoman of the GEW union. The SPD speaks of “poor preparation” – apparently not all schools are equipped with soap and disinfection.

Doubts remain

“We risk increasing numbers of infections,” warns Sigrid Beer, spokeswoman for the Greens’ school policy in the state parliament. Therefore, Beer demands that degrees should be awarded on the basis of the previous average grades – after all, many teachers were also at risk.

“25 percent of our teachers will be absent due to health reasons,” estimates Christiane Künhaupt. She was “super happy” that the first day of school went well: “Everyone was very disciplined.”

However, what a regular lesson should look like from May 4th, is in the stars: Then, instead of 350, 2,000 students appear again. And the classes would also have to be divided to meet the corona distance rules, Künhaupt calculates. “I don’t know if we can do the massive extra work,” says the vice headmistress.

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Coalition agrees on new aid worth billions

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Berlin The corona crisis has provided new aid worth billions for workers, restaurants, businesses and schools. The leaders of the black-red coalition agreed on this late Wednesday evening.

Short-time work benefits are to be increased in order to compensate for loss of income and to prevent social hardship, especially for low-income earners. At the same time, the duration of unemployment benefits is extended. The restaurants that are particularly hard hit by the crisis are getting tax relief.

The federal government must take further measures to cushion social and economic hardship and support economic reconstruction, according to a decision paper.

CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer spoke of “very intensive negotiations”, which dealt with difficult detailed questions. But she is “very happy and satisfied with the result”. The corona pandemic had “dramatically changed people’s lives.”

SPD chairman Norbert Walter-Borjans said important decisions had been taken for companies and workers who were suffering from losses. It was worthwhile to sit together longer than expected and to discuss considerably controversially.

SPD leader Saskia Esken also praised the decision to support pupils in home lessons. Many families are currently not yet equipped for lessons at home, but it is important to have education and participation, said Esken on Thursday night in Berlin.

Raising short-time work benefits: Due to the severe economic consequences of the corona crisis, hundreds of thousands of employees are on short-time work. The Federal Employment Agency replaces part of the lost net income: 60 percent for childless employees and 67 percent for employees with children.

The coalition leaders now want to increase the short-time work allowance, staggered. For those who receive it for a working time reduced by at least 50 percent, it should be 70 percent or 77 percent for households with children from the 4th month of reference and 80 percent or 87 percent for households from the 7th month of reference increase with children – at the latest until the end of 2020. In addition, existing short-time workers will be expanded from May 1 to the end of 2020.

Extension of unemployment benefit: The economic life has largely come to a standstill because of the restrictions, with many companies orders and sales slumping. This also has consequences for the job market, where hardly any new jobs are currently being placed.

Therefore, the duration of the unemployment benefit I is to be extended – by three months and for those whose entitlement would end between May 1 and December 31, 2020.

Anyone who becomes unemployed has received unemployment benefit for twelve months so far, this applies to employees up to 50 years of age – provided they were previously subject to compulsory insurance for 24 months or more. For unemployed people aged 50 and over, the period of benefits increases in several steps to up to 24 months. Prerequisite: You were insured for 48 months or more. The level of unemployment benefit is 60 percent of the last net earnings, and 67 percent for unemployed people with children.

Tax aids for the catering trade: The catering industry is currently breaking away a large part of the revenue. For this reason, catering businesses should now be tax-free. According to a resolution, the value added tax for food in the catering trade will be reduced from July 1 to June 30, 2021 to the reduced tax rate of seven percent.

Up to now, a 19 percent VAT rate has been applied to meals that are consumed in a restaurant, a café or a bar. For dishes that the guest takes away or orders home, there is usually only seven percent. Now a rate of seven percent should generally apply.

More money for schools: The vast majority of schools are closed, and lessons should start gradually again at the beginning of May. The federal government is ready to support schools and schoolchildren with digital lessons at home with 500 million euros, as the paper says. An emergency equipment program is planned.

This should enable the schools to grant a subsidy of 150 euros to needy pupils for the purchase of appropriate equipment. In addition, the equipment of the schools needed to create professional online courses should be promoted.

Improvements in economic aid: Politicians have already adopted aid programs for the economy worth billions in order to keep jobs and companies. The federal government had already announced that it would make improvements if necessary.

Tax relief is now planned for small and medium-sized companies – to ensure liquidity. Specifically, it is about the so-called loss offset. Foreseeable losses for this year should be offset against tax prepayments from the previous year.

The new aid costs billions. SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans spoke of costs in the amount of “above” ten billion euros, the value added tax reduction in the catering industry alone would cost up to five billion a year, the help for the liquidity of the companies around four billion.

The federal government had already put together massive aid packages for companies, the self-employed and employees. To do this, she plans with new debts amounting to 156 billion euros.

Because of the aid packages, Germany’s public debt is increasing significantly. The Ministry of Finance expects the debt ratio – the ratio of debt to total economic output – to be 75.25 percent by the end of the year, as the 2020 stability program shows.

But the end of the flagpole should not yet have been reached. In addition to the acute crisis relief, measures are also planned to boost the economy again. That should also cost billions. However, tax revenues are likely to decline because Germany is slipping into a recession. The new tax estimate is in May.

The consultations took place in the international conference room of the Chancellery because of the spacing rules required in the pandemic and, due to differences in content, took almost eight hours longer than originally planned.

In addition to the party and faction leaders of the CDU, CSU and SPD, foreign minister Heiko Maas and finance minister Olaf Scholz (both SPD) also took part in the meeting at the Chancellery.

More: Read all current developments regarding the corona pandemic here.

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Grand coalition agrees on new aid worth billions

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Berlin The corona crisis has provided new aid worth billions for workers, restaurants, businesses and schools. The leaders of the black-red coalition agreed on this late Wednesday evening.

Short-time work benefits are to be increased in order to compensate for loss of income and to prevent social hardship, especially for low-income earners. At the same time, the duration of unemployment benefits is extended. The restaurants that are particularly hard hit by the crisis are getting tax relief.

The federal government must take further measures to cushion social and economic hardship and support economic reconstruction, according to a decision paper.

CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer spoke of “very intensive negotiations”, which dealt with difficult detailed questions. But she is “very happy and satisfied with the result”. The corona pandemic had “dramatically changed people’s lives.”

CSU boss Markus Söder also spoke of “thick boards” that had to be pierced. Although he would have liked a longer period for the lowering of VAT for the catering trade, he was satisfied with the “incentive program” found. In total, the industry will be relieved of around four billion euros.

SPD chairman Norbert Walter-Borjans said important decisions had been taken for companies and workers who were suffering from losses. It was worthwhile to sit together longer than expected and to discuss considerably controversially.

SPD leader Saskia Esken praised the decision to support students in home lessons. Many families are currently not yet equipped for lessons at home, but it is important to have education and participation, said Esken on Thursday night in Berlin.

The government parties agreed:

Raising short-time work benefits: Due to the severe economic consequences of the corona crisis, hundreds of thousands of employees are on short-time work. The Federal Employment Agency replaces part of the lost net income: 60 percent for childless employees and 67 percent for employees with children.

The coalition leaders now want to increase the short-time work allowance, staggered. For those who receive it for a working time reduced by at least 50 percent, it should be 70 percent or 77 percent for households with children from the 4th month of reference and 80 percent or 87 percent for households from the 7th month of reference increase with children – at the latest until the end of 2020. In addition, existing short-time workers will be expanded from May 1 to the end of 2020.

Extension of unemployment benefit: The economic life has largely come to a standstill because of the restrictions, with many companies orders and sales slumping. This also has consequences for the job market, where hardly any new jobs are currently being placed.

Therefore, the duration of the unemployment benefit I is to be extended – by three months and for those whose entitlement would end between May 1 and December 31, 2020.

Anyone who becomes unemployed has received unemployment benefit for twelve months so far, this applies to employees up to 50 years of age – provided they were previously subject to compulsory insurance for 24 months or more. For unemployed people aged 50 and over, the period of benefits increases in several steps to up to 24 months. Prerequisite: You were insured for 48 months or more. The level of unemployment benefit is 60 percent of the last net earnings, and 67 percent for unemployed people with children.

Tax aids for the catering trade: The catering industry is currently breaking away a large part of the revenue. For this reason, catering businesses should now be tax-free. According to a resolution, the value added tax for food in the catering trade will be reduced from July 1 to June 30, 2021 to the reduced tax rate of seven percent.

Up to now, a 19 percent VAT rate has been applied to meals that are consumed in a restaurant, a café or a bar. For dishes that the guest takes away or orders home, there is usually only seven percent. Now a rate of seven percent should generally apply.

More money for schools: The vast majority of schools are closed, and lessons should start gradually again at the beginning of May. The federal government is ready to support schools and schoolchildren with digital lessons at home with 500 million euros, as the paper says. An emergency equipment program is planned.

This should enable the schools to grant a subsidy of 150 euros to needy pupils for the purchase of appropriate equipment. In addition, the equipment of the schools needed to create professional online courses should be promoted.

Improvements in economic aid: Politicians have already adopted aid programs for the economy worth billions in order to keep jobs and companies. The federal government had already announced that it would make improvements if necessary.

Tax relief is now planned for small and medium-sized companies – to ensure liquidity. Specifically, it is about the so-called loss offsetting. Foreseeable losses for this year should be offset against tax prepayments from the previous year.

Aid measures for ten billion euros

The new aid costs billions. SPD leader Walter-Borjans spoke of costs in the amount of “above” ten billion euros, the value added tax reduction in the catering industry alone costs up to five billion a year, the help for the liquidity of the companies around four billion.

The federal government had already put together massive aid packages for companies, the self-employed and employees. To do this, she plans with new debts amounting to 156 billion euros.

Because of the aid packages, Germany’s public debt is increasing significantly. The Ministry of Finance expects the debt ratio – i.e. the ratio of debt to total economic output – to be 75.25 percent by the end of the year, as the 2020 stability program shows.

But the end of the flagpole should not yet have been reached. In addition to the acute crisis relief, measures are also planned to boost the economy again. That should also cost billions. However, tax revenues are likely to decline because Germany is slipping into a recession. The new tax estimate is in May.

The consultations took place in the international conference room of the Chancellery because of the spacing rules required in the pandemic and, due to differences in content, took almost eight hours longer than originally planned.

In addition to the party and faction leaders of the CDU, CSU and SPD, foreign minister Heiko Maas and finance minister Olaf Scholz (both SPD) also took part in the meeting at the Chancellery.

More: Read all current developments regarding the corona pandemic here.

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