A game in empty stadium. Its good to have you with us back in business with the option to shut down again today german chancellor Angela Merkel announced that germany will ease some of its coronavirus lockdown measures in the coming weeks but she warns the steps must be taking gradually and with caution. Heres a summary of what germanys state leaders agreed in their Video Conference with the chancellor today its being left to the 16 state governments to decide for themselves how and when to reopen daycares restaurants and hotels but local governments must respond quickly if there is a spike in new corona virus infections social distancing rules will be extended for another month but members of 2 separate households were now be allowed to get together and meet large events such as concerts and festivals they will remain banned until the end of the summer but football fans they can look forward to the bonus League Season being allowed to resume in late may however there will be restrictions to those games namely no spectators are lets take a closer look now at some of the challenges confronting germany states as they try to manage reopening their economies. This is what the new normal in germany could look like all the shops open more people out on the streets wearing face masks. Restaurants and big gardens to reopen as well but there will be regional variations due to germanys federal division of path. We have seen Good Progress as far as the number of new infections is concerned that means we can now take further steps. That. Buttery have to be careful to keep control. And the Emergency Response mechanism we have to fed it means i can feel quite confident. Would find the friends before that means the state premie aides have agreed to adjust their measures on the grounds of the number of new infections if they rise above a certain number tougher restrictions must be reintroduced. We do see the Big Decisions we made today dont just concern the question of how can we ease the restrictions but also how can we continue to ensure Public Security we know its difficult finding a balance between Public Safety and Civil Liberties its because the german states now have to find that own ways to gradually stop sending children back to schools and kill. And most german states popular sports will be allowed and 8 of the anticipated abundantly German Soccer League will we see in the season in mid may. Are those fall in our chief Political Correspondent linda crean shes covering this force here in berlin good evening to you melinda i mean these are significant steps that have been agreed to what do they tell us about how the Government Health state governments how they view the state of the pandemic here in germany. Well they tell us that the federal government a sense that at most germany has come out of the very 1st phase of the pandemic the words caution and careful were mentioned frequently by the chancellor of the seedling and in the past she has said that it would be a crying shame if germany were to squander the good results that it had achieved in the 1st phase of dealing with the pandemic but what we can also see from this meeting and its reported that there were some heated exchanges during the course of the meeting is that the heads of the federal states the minister president s are very eager to get their economies up and running once again and for obvious reasons the crisis here as elsewhere has taken a very very grave economic toll so those are the 2 sides that are being balanced here with these measures and what we can say for certain is that its going to be trial and error this will be a test and depending on the results then they we may see germany return to a stricter lockdown you know we know that there is an emergency brake built into the agreement that was reached today i wonder how much risk are we talking about in the strategy that the governments are following right now. No question that there is a risk theres a risk to reopening schools and to kindergartens it isnt still not quite clear to what degree children can spread the virus but certainly there is a potential risk there there will once again be the possibility for people to visit their relatives in old age homes there will be a relaxation of contact restrictions meaning that now members of the family in 2 different households can get together all of those definitely heighten the possibility of seeing it the virus transmitted from one person to another now germany had managed to rate the suppress the socalled reproduction the rate the the reps hit it easy with which the virus doubles so germany is on pretty good crowd at the moment but that number could go up and in fact the head of the robert costa institute which is essentially this Country Center for Disease Control says that he is definitely expecting that there could be a 2nd even a 3rd wave of the virus in future and we know that these decisions made today represent some of the boldest steps yet and moving towards normality again here in europe and its because germany has fared as you say so well compared to its European Partners when it comes to this pandemic why has germany done so well. Well there are a couple of Different Reasons for that 1st of all germany cop a little bit of advance warning if that virus began peaking later here than it is for example in italy and germany watch what was happening in italy and then moved into action pretty quickly to put into place serious restrictions but it was last minute nonetheless secondly the people who were initially infected many of them were young they were coming back from ski vacation is in austria or possibly also in italy and those young people had a better chance of recovering from the virus than older people would have so the fatality rate critically in that 1st wave was pretty low 2nd we cut thirdly because of that advance warning that germany got it was able to keep the Health Systems from being severely overburdened meaning that people got high Quality Health control and the doctors werent forced to essentially engage in tree arch between different patients so all of that plus the fact that germany did very extensive testing more extensive than almost anywhere else certainly in europe and the us means that the rate of deaths to overall infections that we currently know looks very low so a number of different factors working their butts have been stays that way our chief Political Correspondent linda crane well into thank you the german chancellor had good news today for football fans politicians have signed on to the plans that will mean that they can resume the bundesliga season later this month under tight restrictions heres part of what the chancellor said today. Right there number of other areas that we looked at for example retail. When we have now you need to lift. That ban on larger shops to be open but of course there will. Also talk that sports and recreation and of course. Weeks will. Resume operations and. Are the joint you know the big table by my colleague Chris Harrington for me to be sports so when will they be able to play again word is out brit may 15th is the date thats been communicated to all of the but is that a size the 1st and 2nd division and its a matter of when you play and you work your work your play and thats what the league has been working on since day one of the break theyve been working closely with medical professionals as well as the state plotting their return and then weve actually seen it come to fruition and its a big day not only for german football but also for european football isnt it yeah i think it is a big day because it does def it is definitely represents a blueprint of what other major leagues can do in terms of football i can just look at the English Premier League they dont even have a plan in place you know not only england but also you have spain you have italy as well you know these leagues are obviously going to be pushing and watching closely how germany is going to get back on track in a positive way theyre going to revamp everything the venue is going to be turned into qualify medical centers the infrastructure will be in place to make sure that you know they can move forward without a hiccup can you imagine that kristie were going to be seeing these German Bundesliga soccer games and no spectators right no seders thats right no spectators well you know their bread and butter is t. V. Revenue but t. V. Revenue if they didnt get things done and in fact if they dont get things done by the end of june that means several clubs face insolvency you know ive heard a number. The size 13 teams are facing insolvency right now 300000000 euros they stand to gain if the season concludes so theyre pushing for that you know you know but all in all i think one c. E. O. From the defending champions byron munich call his room and they said this can be a symbol to the rest of the world of how our play and work to get back to some sense of normalcy what does this decision mean for other sports than around the world are they looking to see what the Business Leaders going to do it without doubt of course they are but you know a lot of credit to the press conference i did take note of a lot of credit went to the population of germany you know for at harry into all of the social distancing the restrictions in place a lot of times 2nd waves of it of infections you know get out of hand because people do not adhere to those policies you know be a lot of credit goes to the people in germany is well but i think all of leagues are going to be watching is because this is a very lucrative league you know its the biggest show in town in this country so i think all eyes will be on the bun as they go specifically may 15th may 15th the movie watching to see what those empty stadiums look like too thats going to be something new for the people watching on t. V. As well Chris Harrington from sports chris thank you ok. Our here is some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world the European Union has entered the deepest economic recession in its history thats what the European Commission said today the e. U. s economy is expected to contract by a massive 7 and a half percent this year because of the coronavirus shutdowns officials predict output will bounce back next year with growth of around 6 percent but theres no guarantee that the Spanish Parliament has extended the countrys coronavirus state of alert for another 2 weeks the measure passed after a day long debate and sharp criticism from opposition parties spain is one of the hardest hit countries in europe it has started relaxing some walk down restrictions in recent days u. S. Secretary of states mike pump aoe has blasted china for its handling of the corona Virus Outbreak he repeated allegations the virus escaped from a lab in the city of new han and accused beijing of initially covering up the outbreak. Of mars the party in the u. S. As the number of those succumbing to the corona virus rises Health Care Professionals are taking the time to celebrate the positives and one hospital in texas a long term patients recovery from cove vid 19 was an occasion to twist and shout take a look. Dont sing this dress the way and celebrate sing one of the hardened successes. These nurses at st jamess hospital in the u. S. State of california she made to the sounds of ameri out and. Education wasnt just the annual sink into my holiday celebrations and pots of mexico and also the u. S. It was also to mark their recovery of long suffering patient Amanda Mendoza finally discharged from hospital he spent the last 45 days that battling kovac 19. Amid so much speaks knees finding these moments of joy has become all the more important. All the iconic German Electronic bancrofts craftwork depending on where you live it has lost one of its founding members and schneider has died at the age of 73 after a short battle with cancer. Chiefs International Fame in the 1970 s. With hits such as. Alter body and trans your europe express the bands pioneering electronic sound is credited with influencing shawn was ranging from hip hop to techno well leave you now with the music of cross to bail me. Combating the corona pandemic. Where does research stand. What are scientists learning. Background information and news. Hour carona updates. Covert 900. 00 special next on d double