Coronavirus 'biggest challenge for Germany since WW2': Merkel

• "The situation is serious. Take it seriously. Not since German reunification, no, not since the Second World War.
• Germany is facing its biggest challenge since World War II in the fight against the coronavirus.

BERLIN: Germany is facing its biggest challenge since World War II in the fight against the coronavirus, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a television address urging citizens to heed sweeping confinement measures.

"The situation is serious. Take it seriously. Not since German reunification, no, not since the Second World War, has our country faced a challenge that depends so much on our collective solidarity," the veteran leader said in her first-ever direct television appeal to the nation.