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German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced tentative steps to slowly start returning the country to normal, allowing some smaller shops to reopen next week and schools to gradually restart in early May.

Most of the restrictive measures, however, will remain in place through May 3 and many aspects of public life will be limited for weeks and months to come. Restaurants, gyms, and bars will stay closed indefinitely and no large events such as soccer matches, concerts and festivals will be allowed before the end of August at the earliest.

Germany will need to ease restrictions in “small steps,” Merkel said in Berlin on Wednesday after meeting with the country’s 16 state leaders. “We have made some progress. But I do have to stress that this progress is fragile,” she added. “This is a situation in which caution is the order of the day and not foolhardiness.”

Merkel’s move underlined the struggle for European governments to balance reactivating slumping economies against fears of a resurgence of the coronavirus.

The German leader has won plaudits for her aggressive efforts to address the fallout from the virus even as the country’s economy is plunged into a deeper recession than during the financial crisis a little over a decade ago. Comprehensive testing and relative progress in protecting more vulnerable members of society have resulted in a lower fatality rate than European partners such as Italy, Spain and the U.K.

Contact restrictions were imposed more than three and a half weeks ago and were originally to remain in place through Sunday. After the four-hour meeting held via video-conference, Merkel and the state leaders laid out a plan to open stores with retail spaces of less than 800 square meters (8,611 square feet) as well as car dealerships, bike shops and book stores. They also agreed on “urgently” recommending the wearing of face masks on public transport and in shops.

Further steps include:

• Rules on social distancing to continue
• Special protection for the most vulnerable population
• Reopening of hairdressers from May 4
• Church services to remain forbidden
• Bars, clubs, restaurants, movie theaters and hotels to remain closed
• Health authorities to significantly increase staffing
• Development of a contact-tracing app
• Scaling up testing from 650,000 tests a week

Some state premiers and industrial groups have urged the government to move more quickly to prevent further economic damage, but they have met with resistance from public health officials. Wednesday’s plan to keep most restrictions in place promptly spurred criticism from several business organisations representing thousands of smaller and mid-sized companies.

Companies suffering from shutdowns face ballooning debt and are “sliding toward insolvency” every day the measures are being upheld, Markenverband e.V., which represents 400 German firms with well-known brands, said in an emailed statement. “We need a fast exit from the shutdown.”

Germany’s car giants are already preparing for a gradual reopening of their sprawling industrial networks. Mercedes-Benz plans to start output at three German factories that make engines and related components next week in one-shift schedules. The vehicle manufacturing plants are set to subsequently follow suit, the Daimler AG division said in an emailed statement.

BMW AG, which extended its manufacturing stop in Europe, the U.S. and South Africa until the end of April, currently plans to resume production next month, a spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

Damage Limitation

The German experience highlights how governments across Europe are trying to limit the economic damage of containment measures while avoiding another surge in the spread of the disease. The number of new cases on the continent has stabilized in recent days, though more than 50,000 people have died and the fatalities continue to climb.

The European Commission said Wednesday companies and workers won’t get back to business-as-usual until there’s a vaccine or a cure. In the meantime, the European Union’s executive has drawn up plans for a partial lifting of restrictions in an effort to mitigate the economic devastation and coordinate responses.

“Even though the way back to normality will be very long, it is also clear that the extraordinary confinement measures cannot last indefinitely,” the commission said.

New cases in Germany fell for a sixth day, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. The economy ministry said Germany’s recession will probably last until mid-year before activity in Europe’s powerhouse economy picks up again in the second half.

“Plummeting global demand, supply-chain interruptions, changes in consumer behavior and uncertainty among investors are having a massive impact on Germany,” the ministry said in its latest monthly report.

— With assistance by Nikos Chrysoloras, Morten Buttler, Joao Lima, Christoph Rauwald, and Iain Rogers