(Bloomberg) --
Germany’s new coronavirus cases climbed for the first time in a week, while the daily death toll increased.
There were 2,543 new infections, taking the total to 134,753, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The number of fatalities rose by 309 to 3,804. Some 72,600 people have recovered from the disease in Germany.
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday announced tentative steps to begin returning the country to normal. Some smaller shops will be allowed to start serving customers again next week, and schools will gradually reopen in early May. However, most of the restrictive measures brought in last month will remain in place for the time being.
“This is a situation in which caution is the order of the day and not foolhardiness,” Merkel said.
The German leader’s move underlined the challenges faced by governments trying to balance the benefits of reactivating virus-hit economies against fears of a resurgence of the pandemic.
“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.”
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