This was an extraordinary statement.

Chancellor Merkel said she alone bore responsibility for the plan to extend what is usually a three-day Easter holiday to a five-day shutdown.

The German leader will be conscious that – as case numbers soar exponentially – public trust in her government’s pandemic response is wavering.

She was seen as a safe pair of hands who brought the country through the first wave of infections. But – as regional leaders bicker over lockdown measures – Germany’s response is becoming increasingly chaotic.

Mrs. Merkel appears to be struggling to keep the country together.

“Essentially, we have a new virus,” Chancellor Merkel said when announcing the now-canceled Easter lockdown.

The highly contagious UK (Kent) variant of coronavirus had become dominant, she explained, plunging the country into “a new pandemic”.

“It is much deadlier, much more infectious and infectious for much longer,” she claimed, adding Germany was in a race against time to vaccinate against Covid-19.

The infection rate has risen above 100 per 100,000 inhabitants in Germany. That number is critical in determining emergency decisions such as tightening lockdowns. Under the current rules, areas exceeding that infection rate over a seven-day period will not be subject to further reopenings.

But despite the numbers, the announcement of the five-day lockdown, and the subsequent ban on Easter church services, triggered dismay from religious leaders. They argued that their existing social-distancing measures made church attendance safe.

The Catholic German Bishops’ Conference made clear that, following Wednesday’s U-turn, its services would go ahead as planned with hygiene measures in place and video streams available to those who did not want to attend in person.

Retail leaders also welcomed the reversal.

“With today’s decision, a bit of reason is returning to coronavirus policy,” the HDE association of retailers said in a statement.

The country’s partial lockdown, meanwhile, has been extended until at least 18 April.