After a tough four-hour meeting with leaders of the 16 federal states, chancellor Angela Merkel announced the first steps in the lockdown exit-strategy.

Merkel described the current control of the virus’s spread as a “fragile intermediate success” but warned that coronavirus would be something we have to live with until there is a cure or a vaccine.

At this meeting the German government and the First Ministers of the country’s federal states have agreed on changes to the Corona rules. Shops of certain sizes and kinds are allowed to open on Monday.

During a video conference, Merkel and the heads of government from Germany’s federal states decided to reopen schools step by step, starting on May 4th, 2020.

Angela Merkel explained she and the First Ministers had decided not to allow all shops to open in order to make sure city centers would not be overcrowded. She said she was convinced larger stores would be able to follow rules too. But the goal was to open businesses incrementally for good reasons.