German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced plans to slowly ease restrictions brought in to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wednesday, social distancing rules will stay in place until at least May 3, with Merkel also recommending the use of face masks in shops and on public transport, the BBC reported.

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Merkel further said that the country had achieved “fragile intermediate success” through the strict measures.

The chancellor said the country “must keep focused and keep going”, adding that they “do not have a lot of room for manoeuvre”.

According to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country has 127,584 confirmed cases and has reported 3,254 deaths.

Merkel’s announcement makes Germany the latest European nation to start easing restrictions.

Denmark has reopened schools and nurseries for children up to the age of 11. Construction and manufacturing work is back under way in Spain Thousands of smaller shops in Austria reopened on Tuesday, and the country will allow outdoor sport such as tennis, golf and athletics from May 1.

Earlier on Monday, France extended its nationwide lockdown for another month in a bid to halt the coronavirus pandemic, as other hard-hit countries considered easing their measures with hopes rising that death rates may soon plateau.

France reported a slight increase in hospital deaths on Monday — though still below its record numbers of last week — and a slight dip in intensive care patients for a fifth day running.

On Wednesday, Angela Merkel is due to meet the leaders of Germany’s 16 states to discuss a possible way out of the lockdown.

The country has also closed shops, restaurants, playgrounds and sports facilities, and many companies have shut to aid the fight against the coronavirus.

Berlin mayor Michael Mueller told broadcaster RBB on Tuesday that the lockdown could be relaxed ‘at the earliest from April 27, or possibly from May 1’.

Earlier, Germany had approved a massive and unprecedented financial aid package of 156 billion euro ($166.5 bn), the largest in the country since the Second World War, to offset the socio-economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Gatherings of more than two people will be banned in Germany, Merkel said on Sunday, as Europe’s biggest economy toughened restrictions to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Merkel appealed to citizens’ “reason and empathy” in implementing the contact restrictions, saying she had been “very moved” by how closely people had stuck to less stringent.

Worldwide confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 2 million though experts caution that the virus has in all likelihood infected far more people.

The virus has reached all continents except Antarctica with a known death toll of 120,000 people, including more than 28,000 in the United States.