Germany wary of lifting lockdown, despite economic pain

BERLIN (AP) — Politicians and scientists in Germany pushed back against calls for a rapid relaxation of pandemic restrictions as new figures released Thursday showed that businesses have applied for state aid to avoid slashing 10 million jobs because of the economic downturn.

Like in other countries, lockdown measures designed to curb the spread of the new coronavirus have paralyzed much of public life in Germany.

Authorities recently allowed stores to reopen and some students to return to school, but officials dampened expectations about an imminent return to normality. German media reported that the federal government is considering reopening playgrounds and allowing church services soon.

“Especially because Germany has so far come through this crisis better than others it would be reckless to endanger this hard-won joint achievement,” Health Minister Jens Spahn said.

The country of 83 million has recorded almost 162,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 6,467 deaths so far, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That is about a quarter the number of deaths recorded in Britain and France, even though the three countries have a similar number of confirmed cases.

In an op-ed for daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Spahn insisted that the government wanted to take “small steps, rather than risk a big step back.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel was holding talks with the governors of Germany’s 16 states Thursday to discuss the impact that existing measures have had on slowing the spread of the virus.

The head of Germany’s disease control center said the country has recorded between 1,000 and 1,500 new cases a day over the past week, down from 2,000 the previous week. says he expects the actual number of deaths in the country from the new coronavirus to be higher than those currently...