Merkel, German state leaders to decide on new COVID measures: spokesman

Chancellor Angela Merkel in planning a “lockdown light” that will focus on closing bars, restaurants and public events to slow a second wave of COVID-19 infections in Germany, Bild newspaper reported on Monday. Shops will stay open, with some restrictions, under the plan and schools will keep operating, apart from in areas with particularly high numbers of cases, the mass-selling daily reported. A government spokesman neither confirmed nor denied the report and said no final decisions had been made. Infections have almost doubled in the past week in Germany and cases are also rising across Europe and large parts of the Northern Hemisphere.