The German government, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, began with a quick and effective COVID-19 response. This included the closing of schools, non essential businesses, and the country’s borders. For those businesses that needed to stay open, there was a mask wearing requirement as well as social distancing rules, along with a ban on public gatherings. Around the end of April and the beginning of May, they began to reopen their non essential businesses and other areas of their society. On May 26th, the government began to re-introduce public gatherings of up to 10 people, with mask wearing and social distancing still enforced. The german reopening process exists under the condition of an “emergency brake”, where if there is a new infection rate of 50 out of 100 people across a seven day period the country will go back into lockdown. The German government has issued two major economic support packages, €156 million in March and €130 million in June. These funds have gone towards healthcare equipment, vaccine development, grants for small businesses, and greater access to short term jobs to ensure that more people can remain employed. Since the beginning of August, the cases in Germany have begun to steadily increase, similar to the United Kingdom, and there is a possibility that they will have to take a step back and re-introduce some restrictions in order to manage their infection rate.
