COVID-19 pandemic: Germany's Oktoberfest cancelled

KUALA LUMPUR (April 21): The Bavarian authorities have cancelled this year’s world famous beer festival Oktoberfest owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, AFP reported today.

The last time the Oktoberfest was put on hold was during the Second World War.

Even though the event, held annually from late September to October, has been a major tourism draw, attracting about six visitors, the local government is not allowing it to carry on owing to concerns of public health.

It is too dangerous to hold it “as long as there is no vaccine“, Bavaria state premier Markus Soeder was reported saying by AFP.

He added that “the threat of contagion was too high” even with masks and social distancing measures.

“Living with the coronavirus means living carefully,” said Soeder.

Germany registered 1,785 new infections of COVID-19, with total cases reaching 143,457 according to data from disease control agency Robert Koch Institute, Xinhua news agency reported today.

A total of 4,598 deaths have been recorded, an increase of 194 over the past 24 hours, while 95,200 people are considered to have recovered, 3,700 more than the previous day, statistics revealed.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday that the country is "still at the very beginning of the pandemic," despite the fact that person-to-person infection rate is now under 1 and that there are more convalescents than newly infected persons each day, reported Xinhua.

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