German virus data offers 'hope' but premature to ease curbs: Merkel

Latest figures which show the spread of the coronavirus slowing in Germany give "hope", Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday, but warned it was still too early to relax curbs on public life.

"It's true that the latest figures, as high as they are, give us a little bit of hope," said Merkel in her weekly podcast, adding that it was however "definitely much too early...to think about loosening the strict rules we have given ourselves.