Chancellor Angela Merkel speaking on Monday says she is ready to let lockdown restrictions lapse
- are due to finish at the end June
Merkel says they do not need to be renewed as the pandemic has eased in the country (35.1 cases per 100,000 people over the past 7 days, lowest since mid-October) and vaccination rates climb (43% of Germans have now had at least one shot)
- “We don’t need to maintain them now”
- “We know if something should develop again, with mutations -- which we hope won’t happen -- then we can reactivate it very quickly.”
