frankfurt germany will close most stores from wednesday until at least jan 10 cutting short the busy christmas shopping season as it tightens coronavirus restrictions and tries to rein in the spread of the disease chancellor angela merkel said on sundayi would have wished for lighter measures but due to christmas shopping the number of social contacts has risen considerably merkel told journalists following a meeting with leaders of the countrys 16 federal statesthere is an urgent need to take action she saidonly essential shops such as supermarkets and pharmacies as well as banks are to remain open from dec 16 hair salons beauty salons and tattoo parlours will also have to shutthe government will support affected companies with a total of around 11 billion euros 133 billion a month businesses that are forced to close may receive up to 90 of fixed costs or up 500000 euros a month finance minister olaf scholz saidschools will be closed in principle and employers are asked to close operations or have employees work from home the sale of fireworks will be banned ahead of new years evegermany has been in partial lockdown for six weeks with bars and restaurants closed while stores and schools have remained open some regions have already imposed tougher measures as infections grewlockdown light has had an impact but it was not sufficient bavarias prime minister markus soeder said the situation is out of controlprivate gatherings will remain limited to no more than five people from two households for the christmas holidays the rule will be eased slightly so that families can celebrate togethermerkel and soeder said it was too soon to say whether the economy could reopen after jan 10new daily infections and deaths have reached records in recent days and more politicians have been sounding the alarmgermany europes largest economy was more successful than many european countries in keeping the pandemic under control in the first wave in march and april but it has been struggling to turn the tide in the second wavethe number of confirmed coronavirus cases in germany increased by 20200 to 1320716 data from the robert koch institute rki for infectious diseases showed on sunday the reported death toll rose by 321 to 21787 the tally showed