"The federal government and the states today agreed on a joint decision on how to act on restrictions on contacts associated with the coronavirus. An important part of the decision of the head of the federal chanellor's department and the heads of the senates and state chancelleries is that contact restrictions will remain until 29 June", the cabinet said.
Citizens are encouraged to reduce the number of social contacts and maintain contact with a "constant circle of people", the statement said.
Germany has started easing lockdown measures that were put into force in March to curb the spread of the disease. Shops, schools, playgrounds, churches, and museums have already reopened, although the government is monitoring isolated clusters of the infection, including those that have sprung up at a slaughterhouse in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein and a Baptist church in Frankfurt.
German has passed the peak of coronavirus outbreak. In the past 24 hours, the country's death toll from COVID-19 has risen by 45 to 8,302 deaths, according to the Robert Koch Institute's data. The total number of cases is nearing 180,000, but the recent daily rise of infections still fits with the flattening curve of recent days.
The most coronavirus cases have been recorded in Bavaria (46,456), North Rhine-Westphalia (37,395), and Baden-Wurttemberg (34,466). Berlin has 6,652 cases.
