Germany's Merkel calls city leader with outbreak

Authorities in western Germany have imposed a partial one-week lockdown on Guetersloh and Warendorf counties, home to over 600,000 people, because of an outbreak at a slaughterhouse that led to some 1,400 confirmed positive tests. Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert is condemning reported incidents in which people from those regions have been insulted or had their cars damaged.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman is calling on Germans to show "respect and sympathy" to people in areas where there have been new coronavirus outbreaks. Authorities in western Germany have imposed a partial one-week lockdown on Guetersloh and Warendorf counties, home to over 600,000 people, because of an outbreak at a slaughterhouse that led to some 1,400 confirmed positive tests.

Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert is condemning reported incidents in which people from those regions have been insulted or had their cars damaged. He says, "We must treat each other with respect and sympathy, particularly in difficult times, and all should reflect that everyone could find themselves in the situation of living close to an outbreak." The local administration in Guetersloh says Merkel called council leader Sven-Georg Adenauer on Friday to thank the population there for helping ensure the virus doesn't spread. Some local officials have complained about bans or restrictions imposed by some other German regions on vacationers from the area. Seibert says those are matters for state governments.