(Credit: Kirsten Nijhof / Opera Online website / Staatstheater Hannover official website)

Oper Leipzig has announced that it will shut down until at least the end of February 2021.

The company has joined a growing number of German opera houses and concert halls that have closed until February or March 2021. In the meantime, Oper Köln and Staatstheater Hannover have also closed until the end of January 2021.

The government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Ministers of 16 German Federal states have declared the hard lockdown in Germany. The new lockdown is due to start on Dec. 16 2020 and last at least until Jan. 10. 2021. The previous version of the lockdown introduced on Nov. 2, 2020, yielded no results in terms of the fast spread of COVID-19 novel coronavirus.

Germany logged 952 new deaths and 27,728 new daily infections over the last 24 hours.