BERLIN, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Germany's federal and state governments agreed on Thursday to continue to cautiously ease the COVID-19 restrictions. However, the social distancing rules introduced earlier remain in force.
Playgrounds, museums, galleries, zoological and botanical gardens, and places of worship are accessible again but hygiene and distance rules must continue to be observed.
An immediate response must be coordinated and made to possible regional pandemic outbreak, including to immediately reintroduce strict restrictions on mobility in the affected areas, said the agreement.
German citizens are advised to limit social contacts with people outside their own households and are urged to maintain a minimum distance of 1.5 meters with each other, as per the rules introduced on March 22. Shops with a maximum sales area of 800 square meters were allowed to reopen conditionally on April 20.
The federal and state governments are scheduled to meet again next Wednesday to discuss the further easing of COVID-19 measures. The effects of the relaxations introduced to date are "too early to assess," according to their statement.
Germany registered 1,478 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Thursday, raising the total number of cases to 159,119. The death toll now stands at 6,288, up 173 within the past 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch Institute, the country's agency for disease control and prevention. Enditem
