The hard work.

They have been isolated cases of some strains, and authorities want to get on top of the threat.

Scientists tell us that it's not yet dominant.

There's still some time to contain the danger.

Of course, it would be wrong to conclude from that that we still have all the time in the world to act.

So just over a month into Germany's latest locked down, the chancellor in the 16 state premiers agreed to extend existing measures until mid February.

Large parts of public life will remain closed like schools and daycare centers, but also shops, museums, theaters and restaurants.

There'll be a lot more of these to be seen.

Medical masks will be compulsory on public transport and in shops.

The so called F F P two masks offer greater protection.

But common surgical masks will also be allowed.

And there's to be much more working from home.

The governments imposing stricter rules to stop office workers from commuting as much, reducing the infection risk on public transport.

Germany's leaders are once again appealing for patients.

It's hard.

What we are asking of people is hard, but the priority must be protection.

That is what we have to take into account.

And that is what we have taken into account today.

For now, the public is mostly on side.

Recent polling shows 40% happy with stricter measures, while just over 20% would prefer things to stay as they are.

But around a third want restrictions to be eased or to end completely.

Before that happens, there's likely to be some hard weeks ahead.

Infection rates are still nearly three times the preferred level.

But with patience, persistence and sticking to the rules, authorities hope the pandemic will start to loosen its grip on Germany.

Spring in Our political correspondent Nina has a here, Nina, what's the strategy behind these new measures?

Angela Merkel is a scientist, so she believes when scientists tell her that we could face an even greater threat from those new variants that are coming in from other countries.

And so it was very clear from the beginning that the current restrictions would be extended for a long as possible, and under German law, that is four weeks.

So that brings us to mid February.

And the idea, of course, is that a sudden new spike in numbers has to be prevented under all counts and that we will hopefully have more information on the new variants by then.

The current restrictions are already quite strict.

Large part of public life have been shut since November, but the numbers are not going down quite a much as they need to be in.

So now the idea is to focus more on the works fear and not just on the private sphere, because there are very big limitations on how many people you could meet in private.

But people are.

The politicians are saying that's still too many people go to the office is when that is not absolutely necessary on.

That means that trains and Busses are quite full soem or infections potentially and so now.

That is why they've introduced this obligation toe where medical masks thio prevent infections where people do meet on their forcing companies toe, have their people work from home wherever that is possible, the need for further action, you know, it was clear long before the chancellor and state premiers gathered.

Yet it took them hours and hours to agree on the new rules.

Why, by the key sticking point was whether or not Thio introduce or thio to keep schools and kindergartens shut on, extend the measures for them Aziz well, or to keep them shut for a longer period.

And that was, of course, a debate about the right balance between opening them because Children have a right education here in Germany on there's a lot of pressure on parents at the moment where essentially having to teach their kids at home.

On, on the other hand, the data that scientists are giving us, whether warning that the information that they have seemed to suggest that the new variants of the virus are a lot more transmissible also amongst Children and young people, and so on gla.

Merkel wanted to keep those schools shut until the numbers would have gone down a lot more significantly.

But there was a lot of resistance from some social Democratic leaders of regions who said that the schools must be given a perspective.

Toe open again, Nina, Thank you so much.

D.

W s political correspondent, Nina has a there.

Here's a look at some other developments in the Corona virus pandemic worldwide.

The World Health Organization says the more contagious UK variant has now been detected in at least 60 countries.

That's 10 more than a week ago.

Authorities in Beijing have imposed a lock down on five neighborhoods after the city reported a handful of new cases.

China reported 103 new cases countrywide and the number of cases linked to the Australian Open tennis tournament in Australia has risen to 10 after two players and a support person tested positive for the virus.

A total of 72 players remain under strict quarantine.