Germany will extend its ongoing lockdown measures until Feb. 14 amid fears of a new virus variant and continued attempts to bring infection rates down. The existing lockdown was supposed to expire at the end of the month. German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with the country’s state leaders on Jan. 19 to keep most “non-essential” businesses and schools closed. Merkel told reporters after the meeting that Germany may consider closing its borders to neighboring countries that don’t take action to stop transmission of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus that causes the disease COVID-19. The country shares borders with nine European nations. “We need to make sure that everyone around us is doing the same,” Merkel said. “Otherwise we have to look at measures such as entry restrictions.” Additional measures were also added to the lockdown, including corporations allowing their staff to work from home until March 15 and an …