Social curbs have broken exponential growth in pandemic - Merkel

A partial lockdown imposed in Germany at the start of November has succeeded in breaking the exponential growth in coronavirus infections, but infection numbers must fall much further, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday.

Urging people to reduce their social contacts to the absolute minimum possible, she said a follow-up meeting of state and federal leaders on Nov. 25 would take bigger and further-reaching decisions on tackling the pandemic.

"The current restrictions have not yet reversed the trend, but we have broken the dynamics of new infections," she told reporters. "The contact restrictions are the formula for success. We need more of this."