it's response to the corona virus
pandemic has won praise across Europe
and on Monday Germany has started to
ease the restrictions aimed at
containing the virus some small shops
and schools have reopened as have some
car plant production facilities
authorities said last week that the
outbreak was under control and even more
testing was made available Germany has
the fifth highest covered 19 caseload in
the world at nearly one hundred and
forty six thousand but has kept
fatalities down to a relatively low
4,600 in a population of 83 million now
it's up to Germany's 16 states to
implement the easing of restrictions our
berlin correspond Jenny Hill explained
what's happening there there are some
regional differences each of the 16
German states gets to implement those
measures in the best way they see fit so
for example here in Berlin shops
actually haven't opened today that's due
to happen later in the week but I've
just been watching some TV pictures of a
school here headmistress wearing a face
mask opening the door to let one pupil
in at a time into a hall where they're
to sit their exams and at a safe space
from one another so some schools opening
to some pupils simply for exams here in
Berlin and it is a cautious start and I
think it's important to say that in
tandem with the relaxation of these
measures the authorities have said that
they have beefed up their testing
capacity they can now run seven hundred
and thirty thousand tests a week they're
also strongly recommending that people
wear face masks in shops and on public
transport in fact some states and making
that mandatory and they're also
continuing to aggressively contact race
to make sure that as soon as they know
of a person who's infected they make
sure to find out who else that person
has come into contact with so they can
then be tested to avoid any outbreaks
from spreading further so it is a very
cautious start not quite enough wrangler
merkel reportedly she said to him this
morning told scene you know members of
her CDU party that she's rather worried
that the focus is all about the
relaxation when in her view really the
focus should be
the continuing risk and the necessity to
really focus on making sure that the
infection doesn't spread further or
journey we're looking at some images of
people shopping and out and about some
wearing masks some not I mean it's
interesting as we said earlier Germany
has won praise across Europe for the way
in which it has handled this outbreak
why do you think it has been as I
suppose successful as it has been
compared to other European countries
well scientists here and abroad point to
a number of factors first of all Germany
tested a lot of people and it tested
them very early on it had a lot of
testing capacity quite quickly and so a
lot of people who were first infected
got tested early before the symptoms
became particularly advanced and so they
were quickly recovering before they
could passed on to other people they
were contact tracing very quickly - I
think it's fair to say that Germany has
had some luck as well the way in which
this virus entered the country meant
that initially really it was younger
fitter people who were becoming infected
and a scientists point for example to a
lot of people who contracted the virus
while they were skiing in Italy in
Austria and then brought it back to
Germany with them that means that the
average age of an infected person in
Germany is still only 49 and and that
has implications of course for how sick
those people get and the death rates has
been given a lot of attention
internationally - here it is much lower
than other places but as every expert
here predicted from the beginning it is
starting to rise because the infection
has now spread to elderly people's care
homes and hospitals so more vulnerable
sections of society are falling ill and
unfortunately they they are more likely
to suffer and die from from the virus
and so it is a changing picture and
that's why the authorities here are very
keen to be very very careful as they
take their tentative first steps towards
easing parts of our lockdown journey
Hill reporting there from Berlin