Coronavirus: Bavarian beer gardens to reopen as lockdown measures eased in Germany
Restaurants and hotels are also set to reopen this month in the southeastern state of Bavaria.
Tuesday 5 May 2020 19:53, UK
Germans could be sipping their steins in the spring sunshine in less than two weeks as the country's lockdown measures are eased.
Markus Soeder, governor of the southeastern state of Bavaria, has said beer gardens will reopen on 18 May.
Restaurants will open a week later, albeit with limited numbers of customers, limited opening times - having to close at 10pm - and strict hygiene rules.
On 30 May, hotels will be able to welcome tourists, but won't be able to open saunas or swimming pools.
In a more immediate lifting of coronavirus lockdown measures, families in Bavaria will be able to visit elderly relatives in care homes again from Wednesday.
Mr Soeder is among the first state governors to announce concrete plans to further reopen the economy.
Bavaria - which is Germany's second-most populous state and contains the city of Munich - had the highest per capita coronavirus infection rate in the country.
It was the first state to implement a lockdown, with Mr Soeder announcing the COVID-19 restrictions on 20 March.
Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have also set out plans to lift lockdown measures later this month.
The BDI, an umbrella group representing German industry, recently warned the country's future as a major manufacturer could be endangered if lockdown continued.
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Lothar Wieler, the head of Germany's national disease control centre, said there was "great certainty" the country would be hit by a second wave of coronavirus infections.
"The majority of scientists are sure of that," he said. "And many also assume that there will be a third wave."
But he added Germany's "preparation is definitely better" for a second wave, as he put the current reproduction rate in Germany - the number of other people that one person with coronavirus will infect - at 0.71.
At the end of last month, there were fears Germany would have to restore stricter lockdown measures - after it permitted small businesses to open - as its number and rate of coronavirus infections grew again.
The reproduction rate increased to 0.96, only just below the figure of one that officials said it must not exceed in order to keep the outbreak manageable.
According to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the US, Germany has suffered less than a third of the number of coronavirus deaths of other European nations such as Italy, the UK, Spain and France.