BERLIN (REUTERS, BLOOMBERG) - Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen by 2,866 to 130,450, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday (April 16), meaning the number of new infections rose for a second consecutive day.

The reported death toll has risen by 315 to 3,569, the tally showed.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday announced tentative steps to begin returning the country to normal. Some smaller shops will be allowed to start serving customers again next week, and schools will gradually reopen in early May.

However, most of the restrictive measures brought in last month will remain in place for the time being.

"This is a situation in which caution is the order of the day and not foolhardiness," Dr Merkel said.

The German leader's move underlined the challenges faced by governments trying to balance the benefits of reactivating virus-hit economies against fears of a resurgence of the pandemic.

"The epidemic has not gone," Dr Merkel's chancellery minister, Dr Helge Braun, said in an interview with ARD TV on Thursday.

"We have slowed it massively and that is a great achievement by the people in Germany, and that's why we have to take things in very, very small steps when it comes to opening things up again."