(Bloomberg) -- Germany will do “everything necessary” to help cushion the impact of the coronavirus on businesses as the government moves to introduce a partial lockdown on Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
Merkel will meet with industry representatives on Wednesday to discuss how to further help them to ease the burden of coping with the coronavirus. “I assure you, the government will do everything necessary to ease the burden on industry and to secure jobs and welfare as well as the health of the people,” Merkel said in her weekly podcast.
German coronavirus cases continued to rise on Saturday as infections climbed by 21,535 over 24 hours. The number of deaths rose to 129, the second time this months that Germany recorded a death rate of more than 100 people.
Merkel agreed with Germany's 16 regional leaders this week to introduce a partial, one-month lockdown for Europe's biggest economy starting Monday to limit personal contacts while closing bars, restaurants and hotels.
Authorities are no longer able to track infections back to their source and that leads to exponential growth, which must be stopped, the government said. “We need to do everything in our power to get the infection numbers under control,” Merkel said.
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