Lockdown decision: Person-to-person infection rate falls in German data analysis

As Germany announced plans to manufacture at least 50 million masks a week, the country's disease control agency Robert Koch Institute said that person-to-person infection rate had dropped to 0.7 in the country.

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According to the data, a coronavirus patient in the country is infecting less than one person - a critical analysis according to which Germany gradually hopes to ease the countrywide lockdown.

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Merkel had earlier said that shops up to 800 square metres (8,600 square feet) will be allowed to reopen if they abide by the "hygiene rules".

"The curve (of infections) has got flatter, but it still has to be in a shape that doesn't overburden our health system," Merkel asserted, while adding,"even if we assume that one person infects 1.1 others, we would reach the limits of what our health system and intensive care beds can manage in October."

"If we assume a rate of 1.2... we would reach the health system's limit in July. And with a rate of 1.3 -- it doesn't sound like much -- we would get there in June already," the Germany chancellor said on a cautious note.

"You can see how little margin for error we have" when tweaking the step-by-step lockdown exit, Merkel said, while saying that "caution should be the watchword, not over-confidence".

Germany has 138, 273 cases of COVID-19 infections in the country so far with 3,868 deaths.