A public transport strike caused major disruption for commuters across Germany on Tuesday after the powerful Verdi union called for industrial action.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas agreed with his Israeli counterpart Thursday that an effort must be made to extend a weapon embargo on Iran, while stressing Germany still sees the landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers as the best way to prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

With a current U.N. arms embargo on Iran due to expire on Oct. 18, Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi told reporters in Berlin an extension was needed to prevent Iran from getting "more advanced weapons systems and spreading them around the Middle East."

The number of coronavirus infections in Germany surpassed 2,000 in the previous 24 hours, a high not seen since the end of April, authorities said on Saturday.

Germany has recorded 1,707 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the highest daily toll since April, official figures showed Thursday.

Industrial production in Germany fell by 9.2 percent month-on-month in March, official data showed Thursday, as Europe's top economy began to feel the effects of the coronavirus crisis.

Germany is planning an almost complete return to normality in May, with schools and shops reopening and the return of top-flight Bundesliga football matches, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday.

Left empty as the coronavirus pandemic forced events to be cancelled, Berlin's exhibition centre Messe is getting a makeover with the help of German soldiers -- to reemerge as a hospital in a few weeks' time.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is "greatly concerned" that virus-fighting discipline among the German public may ebb as the country takes its first steps out of a month-long lockdown, AFP learned from party sources Monday.

Germany said on Friday a month-long lockdown had brought the coronavirus pandemic under control, announcing plans to manufacture 50 million masks a week ahead of the first steps to loosen restrictions.

Measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak will slash German 2020 economic output by 2.8 to 5.4 percent before a rebound next year, a panel of economists who advise the government said Monday.