Some stores are reopening across Germany as Europe’s biggest economy takes its first tentative steps towards restarting public life after a four-week shutdown.
Shops with a surface area of up to 800 square meters (8,600 square feet) are being allowed to reopen on Monday, along with car showrooms, bike shops and bookshops of any size.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, told German media that big shops “draw large numbers of people into the city centre, they have high customer numbers and that isn’t possible in the first step”.
Germany has been lauded for its rigorous Covid-19 testing regime, the country has the third highest number of confirmed cases in Europe but a much lower death toll.
As of Monday morning, the country had reported 4,404 virus-related deaths.
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