you. know. this is. an agreement in germany the country is about to take the biggest steps yet to reopen its economy and lift the lockdown. that all stores and restaurants will soon be reopening but if the coronavirus makes a comeback she says the restrictions will return to also coming up tonight springing back the bundesliga the pandemic forced germany's top football league to suspend its season later this month players will return to the pitch but the fans will have to watch from home and cautiously getting back to work india eases for

some businesses despite the viral hotspots and the merging across the country. it's good to have you with us back in business with the option to shut down again today german chancellor angela merkel announced that germany will ease some coronavirus a lockdown measures in the coming weeks but she warned that the steps must be taking gradually and with caution let's take a look now at some of the challenges that are confronting germany as it tries to reopen its economy this is what the new normal in germany could look like all the shops open more people out on the streets wearing face masks. restaurants

and beer gardens are to reopen as well. but there will be regional variations due to germany's federal division of powers. and we have seen good progress as far as the number of new infections is concerned that means we can now take further steps . that. but we have to be careful to keep control. and the emergency response mechanism we have to fend of means i can feel quite confident. that means the state premiers have agreed to adjust their measures on the grounds of the number of new infections. if they rise above a certain number tougher restrictions must be reintroduced. we do see the big decisions we made today don't just concern the question of how can we ease the restrictions but also how can we continue to ensure public security we know it's difficult

finding a balance between public safety and civil liberties it's because. it's been left to the 16 state governments to decide for themselves how and when to reopen day care facilities restaurants and hotels social distancing rules are to be extended for another month but members of 2 separate households will now be allowed to meet large events like concerts and festivals remain banned until the end of the summer but football fans can look forward to the bonus legacies and being allowed to resume in mid may with restrictions a relief for many parents children will gradually start getting back to schools and kindergartens. it's an almost complete return to normal. and the chancellor said that it's up to german for themselves to make sure the redeemed freedom works. are this bill in our chief political correspondent in the creative she's covering this force here in berlin going to you melinda i mean these are significant steps that have been agreed to what do they tell us about how the government health state governments how they view the state of the pandemic here in germany where they tell

us that the federal government a sense that at most germany has come out at the very 1st phase of the pandemic the words caution and careful were mentioned frequently by the chancellor the seedling and in the past she has said that it would be a crying shame if germany were to squander the good results that it had it she in the 1st phase of dealing with the pandemic but what we can also see from this meeting and it's reported that there were some heated exchanges during the course of the meeting is that they had the federal states the ministers presidents are very eager to get their economies up and running once again and for obvious reasons the crisis here as elsewhere has taken a very very grave economic toll so those are the 2 sides that are being balanced here with these measures and what we can say for certain is that it's

going to be trial and error this will be a test and depending on the results then they we may see germany return to a stricter lockdown you know we know that there is an emergency brake built into the agreement that was reached today wondering how much risk are we talking about the strategy that the governments are following right now. no question that there is a risk there isn't risk to reopening schools and to kindergartens it isn't still not quite clear to what degree children can spread the virus but certainly there is a potential risk there there will once again be the possibility for people to visit their relatives in old age homes there will be a relaxation of contact restrictions meaning that now members of the family in 2 different households can get together all of those definitely heighten the possibility of seeing the virus transmitted from one person to another now germany

had managed to rate the suppress the so-called reproduction the rate the reps hit it easy with which the virus doubles so germany is on a pretty good crowd at the moment but that number could go up and in fact the head of the robert costa institute which is essentially this country center for disease control says that he is definitely expecting that there could be a 2nd even a 3rd wave of the virus in future and we know that these decisions made today represent some of the boldest steps yet and moving towards normality again here in europe and it's because germany has fared as you say so will compared to its european partners when it comes to this pandemic why has germany done so well. well there are a couple of different reasons for that 1st of all germany got a little bit of advance warning that virus began peaking later here than it did for

example in italy and germany watched what was happening in italy and then moved into action pretty quickly to put into place serious restrictions but it was last minute nonetheless secondly the people who were initially infected many of them were young they were coming back from ski vacation in austria or possibly also in italy and those young people had a better chance of recovering from the virus than older people would have so there's a talented great particularly in that 1st wave was pretty low 2nd certainly because of that advance warning that germany got it was able to keep the health systems from being severely overburdened meaning that people got high quality health control and the doctors weren't forced to essentially engage in treat between different patients so all of that plus the fact that germany did very extensive testing more extensive than almost anywhere else certainly in europe and the us

means that the rate of deaths to overall infections that we currently know looks very low so a number of different factors working their butts up and stays that way our chief political correspondent linda crane well linda thank you all fans of germany's bonus league soccer got the news they wanted today games will resume on may the 15th the league suspended all matches in mid march because of the pandemic today's decision makes the bundesliga europe's 1st major football league to resume play it will be a kickoff watched by the entire world of sports. team is wimbledon cancelled 1st time since world war 2. the tokyo olympics postponed until 2021 if it even takes place. the same goes for the cancelled european football championship the list of postpone major sporting events

is long top class sport worldwide has come to a standstill. but the german football league is now allowed to start again the chancellor announced on wednesday and then the female among other things the topic of shops which cannot open without restriction but of course with the heightened concepts will be covered by mass and leisure sports this one is 5 the 1st and 2nd german football league which will be allowed to run the can see again from the 2nd toughest may on woods under the approved under tested rules. of the league had their own response to today's decision is good news for the bonus league and the 2nd one is legal because the clubs and their employees now have a great responsibility to implement the medical and organizational guidelines in a disciplined manner he says it's. the d.f.l.

bell organization of the german football league is breaking new ground with the resumption of play a central component of its concept close mess testing of everyone involved there are to be $20000.00 tests in the next few weeks the 1st wave of testing resulted in 10 positive cases out of more than $700.00 tests there will be strict hygiene in distance rules and of course games without spectators these so-called ghost games are to be played in the 1st and 2nd division and till the end of the season the d.f.l. decided the restart date for german football will be may 15th. well here are some of the other coronavirus stories that are making news around the world there will be no presidential election in poland discovering sunday the government today agreed to a postponement after opposition groups argued that the coronavirus lockdown makes a fair election impossible

a new day has not yet been set in the european union expects this year to enter the deepest economic recession in its history its economy is expected to contract by a massive 7.5 percent this year because of the coronavirus shutdowns there is no guarantee that 2021 will see a return to growth spain has extended the country's coronavirus state of alert for another 2 weeks it came after a day of sharp criticism in parliament from opposition parties spain is one of the hardest hit countries here in europe. india has seen its biggest single day spike in corona virus infections a link to an outbreak at a fruit markets in the southern city of sanaa overall the country has more than 49000 cases where that 1500 people have died still india is moving to ease lockdown restrictions across the country in delhi people are slowly returning to work but

things are still far from normal. if they want him back to work from home about. nobody that is lifting big things then econd as well. but normally it's pretty been defined. for the last 40 days. in the us you know alan has got them at home now on the exit seeking an. employed well because like all of them i don't know how to make one cause as long as they take precautions. of them some awnings usually enough time to do. but this year he feels the pickings are going to be far more to . the customer we need. the customers don't want us to come customers also scare me how does everyone is worried about their safety when they do call us they keep a distance from us to go to the other rooms will. all go to st opening up again the

field is do it every day the delhi government has had the time has come to be open the city but the public transport still offline and call on the kinds of businesses allowed to operate there is confusion about how that's going to happen then is a red zone a city with a higher number of houston. down the road salt other now to open but it isn't always tio the song for us if they qualify i'm off the lot of months of the 2 on a day off to sing up envy. hoping to do you open. the windows sing read on whatsapp that electrical shocks i don't the approved list. he's still keeping his shop hock shop. just in case the it what it is tell him otherwise and that is another problem but public buses off the roads the only employees who can make it to work the ones who live within cycling distance and we need all those

closet gay couple why those who can make it will come i'll pick up what i can myself we can't call many of our own places anyway people because we have to maintain distance you have a lot of the only the distance caught up with business is slow but at least the city is gradually coming tonight is. awesome doesn't want to get his hopes up because he knows a spike in t. if this can cause i'm not the shutdown in these uncertain times every job is a blessing. the iconic german electronic bancroft's has lost one of its founding members florian schneider and started the age of 73 after a short battle with cancer cross their conceived international fame in the 1970 s. with hits like das model. and trans europe express the band's pioneering electronic sound is credited with influencing genres ranging from hip hop to techno. leave you

know with the sounds of coffee. you. know. this state of emergency is the new normal. people around the world are documenting these dramatic times. they're keeping the corona diary. and welcoming us into their lives out. there let us get as up close and personal as the pandemic will allow. the diaries starts many teeth on t w.