Germany to impose new coronavirus rules amid record rise in cases

Contacts are to be reduced to a maximum of two households, and no more than 10 people, the chancellor, Angela Merkel and the leaders of Germany’s 16 states decided during an emergency video conference.

But in recent weeks, parts of the country’s test-and-trace system have increasingly been overwhelmed.

In Berlin, which has for several weeks been considered a coronavirus hotspot, the system is said to have all but collapsed, and people who tested positive have been asked to reach out to contacts themselves.

State leaders have often been reluctant to recognise the urgency of the situation, and last month Merkel was accused of alarmism after suggesting infections could be at more than 19,000 a day by Christmas.

The culture minister, Monika Grütters, said the billions of euros that had already been pumped into aiding the arts would have to be considerably increased

With private gatherings reduced to a maximum of just two households, and no more than 10 people, a debate was triggered over just how the rules would be controlled

The measures have been widely referred to as a “lockdown lite”, though the government has been reluctant to refer to them as such, speaking instead of a “wave break”