Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday urged Germans to show endurance and discipline to get through the coronavirus pandemic that is "still at the beginning", and called for a bigger European Union budget to support economic recovery in the bloc.
Merkel is worried that Germans are slacking off their social distancing efforts after the federal and regional governments agreed to reopen shops this week.
Germany has the fifth highest COVID-19 caseload behind the United States, Spain, Italy and France, but has kept fatalities down thanks to early and extensive testing.