Germany needs to stay vigilant and further bring down the number of coronavirus infections if the country is to enjoy a "carefree summer" and large-scale reopenings, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Sunday.

“The weather is improving, the number of vaccinations is rising, infection rates are falling. The restrictions will fall one by one,” Spahn told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

“And that’s incredibly important after the long, dark winter months. But for a carefree summer, we need to lower the incidence rate even further,” he said.

Germany has in recent weeks managed to break a third wave of the pandemic after imposing strict nationwide curbs and picking up the pace of vaccinations.

The closely watched seven-day incidence rate in the European Union’s most populous country has fallen from 169 new infections per 100,000 people in late
April to 64.5 on Sunday.

Germany’s 16 regional states have started relaxing restrictions, with some reopening beer gardens, hotels and swimming pools while others are bringing pupils back to school full-time.

But Spahn warned against opening up too soon.

“Caution and vigilance remain the order of the day,” he told Bild.

“Last summer the incidence rate was below 20. We should aim for that again.”

The minister also said Germany had to learn lessons from the summer of 2020, when returning holidaymakers led to a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Spahn said special attention should be paid to trips by people visiting relatives in Turkey and Balkan countries, which at one point last year “accounted for around 50 percent of all new infections” in Germany.