To that grim news comes just a za country enters a harder national lock down, with schools and non essential businesses to remain closed through January 10th.

The new restrictions coming into effect, sent some last minute shoppers scrambling to buy presence in time for the holidays.

There's always a surge of people at Christmas time hunting for last minute gifts.

But this year the crush has come earlier than usual.

In Germany, shoppers rushed to make last minute purchases ahead of the country's tough, locked down.

People seem pretty stressed about the whole thing.

You can feel it, but we're finished.

We got it done for health reasons.

All I can say is that it's the right thing to do.

We can't wait until it all falls to pieces.

But while some may not find what they're looking for, a welcome Christmas present may be coming soon.

Germany is waiting for the first coronavirus vaccines to be approved.

The problem is so far, not even the health minister knows when that will happen.

National authorities air supporting the European authorities to the best of their ability.

The goal is to secure approval before Christmas.

Germans have watched patiently as a vaccine invented in the country has been rolled out already in the UK and the US mass immunization centers are currently being equipped.

Millions of doses of vaccine are on order.

Those with heightened risk of infection will be invited first, the elderly as well as frontline medical workers.

Establishing priority is key and distributing the vaccine many people wanted as quickly as possible.

But there isn't enough, at least in the beginning.

So that's why we need clear and transparent priorities.

The vaccine is being kept under key and lock, and it's very highly protected.

The vaccine is coming to Germany, but unlike with Father Christmas himself, nobody can yet be sure when to expect it.

Okay, let's break down now.

What has changed in Germany with this new stricter locked down Starting today, all non essential shops are closed.

Supermarkets, pharmacies as well as banks are allowed to remain open schools air shut until the 10th of January, and employers are being encouraged to allow their staff toe work from homos.

Faras possible.

A Chancellor Angela Merkel, also made an appeal for people toe limit their social contacts.

During the holidays, the number of people allowed to meet indoors will remain restricted to five, not including Children under 14 and in anticipation of New Year's celebrations.

Sales of fireworks have also been banned.

And let's bring in.

Our political correspondent Nina has a with the latest on this Hi, Nina.

Can some of these new measures really be enforced?

Well, it is quite easy to enforce measures like the wearing off masks, the closure of schools, onda, the closure of shops.

But it is a bit trickier, of course, when it comes to controlling just how many people are gathering in a private flats.

Because, of course, the privacy in people's homes is regarded extremely highly here in Germany, and authorities do need toe have good reasons to intervene, but they can do so.

There are exceptions to that rule that you could do basically whatever you want in your home on those exceptions also apply to the current Corona measures.

So it is the situation that neighbors could theoretically report their neighbors to the police and the police could come knocking on people's doors to check whether they see that the Corona measures are not adhered to in people's private homes.

And let me just add that the police have been called on numerous occasions throughout the pandemic and they have broken private parties, illegal parties that were held against those rules.

But of course it is up to the individual police people to then decide whether those measures of imposing fines which they could potentially also do, would be appropriate or not.

And of course, it's not a picture that anybody wants.

Politicians have said clearly we don't want the police to sit around a Christmas tree in people's homes on bond.

Church leaders also are simply appealing to the German population, too.

Adhere to the rules?

How does the German population see this?

These new rules?

It's interesting if you look at the polls from the latest months.

There was always half of Germans who always said the measures are appropriate because they could see that measures were necessary to bring down infection Normans numbers.

And then there were always about 30% of the German population who said no.

The measures are not enough.

The numbers are rising too fast and this is something where I think people are now beginning to see the dramatic situation in hospitals.

We are beginning to hear of reports where doctors are having to decide which patient gets intubated and which one doesn't simply because there's a lack of resources.

And that, of course, is bringing it home to people that the situation is extremely dangerous and that a lot more needs to be done to not only stop exponential growth, but to reduce the number of new infections so that we can get control over the situation against.

I believe that Germans are in the majority of cases, okay with the measures, our political correspondent Nina has a reporting.

Thank you so much.

Now we have PETA Liza with us.

He's a member of the European Parliament and the health spokesperson for the largest political group in the parliament.

Three e p p.

Mr.

Lisa, Good morning.

Thank you for joining us.

I want to start out first of all with the vaccines because we know that some countries like the U.

S.

In Britain.

They are already vaccinating with the biotech Pfizer shot.

Why is it taking European authorities longer to approve it.

Yeah, because we are having a more safe procedure.

Europe will have the first regular approval off the vaccine.

United Kingdom and the US have done emergency authorization, and that is, uh, less safe because of three reasons.

First of all, we got more data by on text delivered data even yesterday night.

And the second is that the liability is for the producer with the regular approval, like in the European Union.

And more people are looking at the data on side effects and if you could see so I think it's only a few days longer, but it adds safety toe the process, and that's important.

But we're talking about the same vaccine here, aren't we?

So you're saying that it was less safe for Britain and the US to move forward with approval so quickly?

Are you worried about the safety of this vaccine I trusted by on tech?

I know these people, they are serious, but in German, we say the town is good control.

It's Bessa, so trust is good, but to check it is better and the checks have bean mawr intensive.

And I know that many people are concerned because the vaccine comes so fast, you normally normally from the first scientific project, toe the approval.

It takes years and now we have less than 12 months.

So we need to clarify that everything is in order.

And that's why this European approach, in my view is, is better.

They have worked day and night, as I said in the night by Aunt Accent data, and the Emma immediately received them and distributed them.

So I think this is important toe do it fast, but it's also important to do it safe.

So is that also what you're worried about?

That because this approval process is generally being very fast, that there's not gonna be enough trust among the public?

Do you think not enough people are going toe?

Take this vaccine.

I'm optimistic that in the end many people will be ready to be vaccinated, but the process must be in order.

Um, it is not only a knish you off pace.

It is also ah, question off working day and night and the question off money.

Normally, the development takes a long time because people yeah, industry they best carefully because when there is a failure in the beginning.

You lose a few money when you invest a lot in, like by contacted.

For 40,000 people in the clinical trial, you lose a lot.

And that was risk sharing.

The European Union funded by on tax the German government funded by on tech so that if there would have been a failure, But I don't expect then the risk is not only for the company.

So if there are many reasons why it's fast and if we have a regular conditional market licensing from the E.

M.

A.

I trust in the safety, and I will really recommend everybody who is in order when, when we have enough vaccine toe get vaccinated, Mr Lisa.

Beyond the vaccine, the head of the World Medical Association expects that we will see tough restrictions until spring.

Why is that?

Yeah, First of all, we don't have enough vaccine.

Its's problem.

Even in the UK on the United States, the pictures gives the impression that everything is fine now.

It is not also UK and us will not have enough vaccine, and that's the same with Germany and the members off the European Union.

And that's why um, I think we need toe.

Be prudent.

But I don't agree with Mr Montgomery that the tricked reflections, as we have it now in Germany needs to go until spring.

We should look at Ireland as an example.

Island has managed to bring down the affections.

In October, they were much worse, uh, much higher figures per capita than in Germany and other European countries.

And now they have opened pups, and they have opened gyms because they brought down the figures.

So if we all adhere to the measures, we can bring the figures down, and that's what we have to do now in the coming weeks in Germany.

All right, we'll have to leave it there.

PETA Lisa The Health Health, a spokesperson for the E, P P and the European Parliament.

Thank you so much.

Thank you back.

Let's take a look Now some other developments in the pandemic Drug regulator in the United States says its analysis shows the modern A vaccine is safe and 94% effective.

That data means the vaccine could get emergency approval in days and could be rolled out next week.

South Korean officials say there are only three intensive care hospital beds left in the capital, Seoul, a city with a population nearly 26 million.

The country has reported a record surge in cases in recent days, and scientists from the World Health Organization are planning to visit the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak was first reported.

They want to find out how the virus moved from animals to humans.