(Credit: Antje Kraschinski / Berlin Online)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Prime Ministers of Germany’s 16 federal states have reached an agreement about the possible gradual lifting of the hard lockdown measures in Germany.

The lockdown has been generally extended until March 28, 2021. The government will relax regulations and requirements of the lockdown every two weeks, depending on the rate of the infection. German authorities will allow reopening according to the plan only if the incidence rate is less than 50 cases per 100,000 people.

Theaters, concert venues, and opera houses will be allowed to reopen on March 22 at the earliest, given the necessary epidemiological conditions are met. An emergency brake system will return federal states to the current lockdown levels if there are three consecutive days with an incidence rate above 100 per 100,000 people per week.

The German government imposed the lockdown at the beginning of November 2020, due to the soaring COVID-19 cases. The Seven-day incidence rate in Germany is currently 64.7. Major German opera houses might reopen on different dates, as the seven-day incidence rate in different areas of Berlin is between 40.7 and 64.5. In Hamburg it is at 67.8, while in Munich the rate stands at 45.9.