Hair salons in Germany will be allowed to reopen from next month despite other shops being closed and concern over new variants of coronavirus.
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday said most of the country's national lockdown would be extended until at least March 7 after restrictions were expected to be eased on Sunday.
Under the new guidelines – hammered out over five hours of intense talks with regional leaders on Wednesday evening – schools and day-care centres can reopen in the coming days, and hairdressers will be allowed to open from March 1, with strict hygiene rules.
A new target of 35 weekly cases per 100,000 people was set before non-essential shops, museums and other businesses could reopen. A deal on hotels and restaurants was pushed back to a later date.
The revised plan came after pressure from state premiers who wanted hairdressers to open on February 22.
Bavarian governor Markus Soeder, who is among the men vying to succeed Ms Merkel as chancellor, said the decision “has something to do with dignity during this difficult time”.
Berlin mayor Michael Muller said: “I’m amazed at some of the debates about how big a role hairdressers play.”
A draft report of the proposal mentioned that hairdressers were needed to improve personal hygiene through regular hair washing.
"Significant sections of the population, especially the elderly, are dependent on them,” it said.
Last month, Ms Merkel said she was looking forward to the day hairdressers reopened after relying on the help of an assistant since mid-December when the hard lockdown came into force.
“One has to live with the fact of slowly going grey," she said.
On Thursday, the chancellor urged Germans to show a little more patience with lockdown rules and said restrictions would not be kept for a day longer than necessary.
She said the extension was needed to avoid a third wave as a result of due to the risk posed by new virus variants.
"I don't think that the back and forth – opening up then closing down again – brings more predictability for people than waiting a few days longer," she said.
“We’re not far away from infection numbers that can make step-by-step reopening and freedoms possible.”
Doctors, however, warned that the reopening of schools would lead to a surge in infections.
"Schools and kindergartens are unfortunately places where the virus is passed on," said Dr Gernot Marx, who represents the intensive care sector.
“The kids carry it into the families, and most teachers are not vaccinated. As an intensive care doctor I am therefore telling you: this is irresponsible.”
