In the first high-level talks held by the centre-right Christian Democrats’ (CDU) since the summer break, Merkel spoke out against further easing of restrictions, sources involved in the discussion said.

She is said to have ruled out allowing fans into Bundesliga stadiums for the time being.

Merkel is reportedly planning her next meeting with the premiers of Germany’s 16 states, a semi-regular occurrence during the pandemic in which she has sought to coordinate a nationwide response, despite variations in the rules at regional level.

Merkel’s talks with other leading figures in the CDU were held online.

The number of novel coronavirus infections confirmed in Germany daily has been on the rise since late July.

On Monday, 561 new cases were reported across Germany, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.

This was far lower than in previous days; however, the figures tend to dip on Sundays and Mondays due to a weekend lull in reporting from local health authorities.

On Friday and Saturday, the daily rise again surpassed 1,400. Rates of over 1,000 were last seen in May.

Germany’s epidemic reached its peak in early April with over 6,000 new cases reported in a day.

So far, 224,014 infections have been confirmed in Germany and 9,232 have died.