
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday announced that her country would begin a tough five-day lockdown to combat the recent rise in coronavirus infections, CNN reported.
The lockdown, which will span April 1-5, including the Easter holiday, will close nearly all stores. Grocery stores will be allowed to open only on April 4.
The lockdown will also ban more than five people over age 14 from two households from gathering together.
The looser lockdown measures - instituted mid-December 2020 - will be extended until April 18, Merkel added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Germany's public health authority reported that there had been 250 deaths, and 7,458 new coronavirus cases diagnosed, since Monday, representing an average of 2,000 daily cases more than were diagnosed last week.
"We know that the current emergency measures will not be sufficient to stop the exponential growth," CNN quoted Merkel as saying. "That's why the 1st of April, Maundy Thursday, and the 3rd of April will be declared rest days this year with expanded contact restrictions and a ban on gatherings from the first to the fifth of April."
"That means expanded closures over Easter. For five days in a row the principle is: we will stay at home.
"We are now seeing the more dangerous mutation with the penetration of the more contagious British mutant," she added, noting that "the number of cases is increasing exponentially, the intensive care beds are filling up again, and now more people in middle and younger age are also experiencing difficult illnesses."