(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel is moving forward with plans to slowly start returning Germany to normal, allowing some smaller shops to reopen next week and children to begin returning to school in early May.
Most of the restrictive measures will remain in place at least through May 3 and many aspects of public life will be limited for weeks and months to come. Restaurants, gyms, and bars will stay closed indefinitely and no large events such as soccer matches, concerts and festivals will be allowed before the end of August at the earliest.
Germany will need to ease restrictions in “small steps,” Merkel said in Berlin on Wednesday after consulting with the country’s 16 state leaders. “We have made some progress. But I do have to stress that this progress is fragile,” she added. “This is a situation in which caution is the order of the day and not foolhardiness.”
Germany’s latest virus figures appeared to justify that approach. The number of new cases climbed for the first time in a week, while the daily death toll increased, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
| Read more: |
|---|
| Crunch Time for World’s Supply Chains to Deliver Masks and Meat |
| Meticulous Germany Knows How to Handle a Pandemic: Andreas Kluth |
| What You Need to Know About the Coronavirus Pandemic: QuickTake |
Merkel’s move highlights how governments across Europe are trying to limit the economic damage of containment measures while avoiding another surge in the spread of the disease. The number of new cases on the continent has stabilized in recent days, though more than 50,000 people have died and the fatalities continue to climb.
“The epidemic has not gone,” Merkel’s chancellery minister, Helge Braun, said in an interview with ARD TV Thursday. “We have slowed it massively and that is a great achievement by the people in Germany, and that’s why we have to take things in very, very small steps when it comes to opening things up again.”
Spain, which this week allowed a limited number of workers to return, reported the biggest increase in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in six days on Wednesday, though the daily death toll declined. The country has already passed the peak of what is Europe’s most extensive outbreak, and a government team is working on how to relax severe restrictions on movement.
In France, Director General For Health Jerome Salomon cautioned that “it’s indispensable to respect the confinement.” While French coronavirus-linked deaths rose by 1,438 to 17,167, the number doesn’t represent the change over a 24-hour period as it includes fatalities in recent days not previously reported.
‘Remain Vigilant’
“The Covid-19 pandemic is still very active,” Salomon told a briefing in Paris. “We need to remain vigilant.”
Italy, meanwhile, the original epicenter of the European outbreak, reported its fewest new coronavirus cases in four and a half weeks.
Merkel’s aggressive effort to address the fallout from the virus has won plaudits even as the country’s economy is plunged into a deeper recession than during the financial crisis a little over a decade ago. Comprehensive testing and relative progress in protecting more vulnerable members of society have resulted in a lower fatality rate than European partners such as Italy, Spain and the U.K.
Contact restrictions were imposed more than three and a half weeks ago and were originally to remain in place through Sunday. After a four-hour meeting held via video-conference, Merkel and the state leaders laid out a plan to open stores with retail spaces of less than 800 square meters (8,611 square feet) as well as car dealerships, bike shops and book stores. They also agreed on “urgently” recommending the wearing of face masks on public transport and in shops.
Further steps include:
- Rules on social distancing to continue
- Special protection for the most vulnerable population
- Reopening of hairdressers from May 4
- Church services to remain forbidden
- Bars, clubs, restaurants, movie theaters and hotels to remain closed
- Health authorities to significantly increase staffing
- Development of a contact-tracing app
- Scaling up testing from 650,000 tests a week
Some state premiers and industrial groups have urged the government to move more quickly to prevent further economic damage, but they have met with resistance from public health officials. Wednesday’s plan to keep most restrictions in place spurred criticism from business organizations representing thousands of smaller and mid-sized companies.
Companies suffering from shutdowns face ballooning debt and are “sliding toward insolvency” every day the measures are being maintained, according to Markenverband e.V., which represents 400 German firms with well-known brands. “We need a fast exit from the shutdown.”
Germany’s car giants are already preparing for a gradual reopening of their sprawling industrial networks. Volkswagen AG’s main car brand will begin restarting production outside China next week, while rival Daimler AG said that three German sites that make engines and related components for its Mercedes-Benz luxury cars will gradually resume operations next week and vehicle manufacturing sites will follow.
To calm nervous markets, France and Spain -- along with Belgium, Austria and Greece -- banned the short-selling of equities for a further month, until May 18.
The European Securities and Markets Authority, which coordinates oversight across the region, said that the move by the five countries was “justified by current adverse events or developments which constitute a serious threat to market confidence and financial stability.”
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
POPULAR