The virus is accelerating across Europe and although Germany fared better than most nations during the first wave, it's now being hit hard by the second.
"It is the beginning of the year with mixed feelings. There is the hope we associate with this new year, the justified hope that step by step we will get the coronavirus under control and get our freedom back," said Merkel.
"There is this dangerous second wave of the pandemic that our country is in, like so many European countries. These next weeks of winter will probably be the most difficult phase of the pandemic," the German chancellor added.
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