There was a twist to the coronavirus scare on Sunday when Thomas Schaefer, the finance minister of Germany’s Hesse state, committed suicide.
The 54-year-old father f two was said to have been depressed by the economic impact of coronavirus in the country.
According to afp, he took his life apparently after becoming “deeply worried” over how to cope with the economic fallout from the coronavirus, state premier Volker Bouffier said Sunday.
“We are in shock, we are in disbelief and above all we are immensely sad,” Bouffier said in a recorded statement.
“Today we have to assume that he was deeply worried,” said Bouffier, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“It’s precisely during this difficult time that we would have needed someone like him,” he added.
