"Laschet is still a long way from the chancellor's office," the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily said. But the poll result has brought him "much closer to it".
The CDU under new party chief Armin Laschet won between 35 and 36 percent of the vote, exit polls showed, with the anti-immigration party on between 22.5 and 23.5 percent.
Although support nationally has stagnated at around 10 to 12 percent for the AfD in recent months, in Saxony-Anhalt -- as in other former East German states -- the party has long had a strong base of support.
"Children and adolescents can then apply for a vaccination appointment after the end of the prioritisation, knowing that the prioritisation will generally be lifted on June 7," she said.
"We must not forget that we are still living in the pandemic and that we cannot now say 'the pandemic is over'," Merkel told a news conference after meeting regional leaders.
"Those affected need some reliability on the path to climate neutrality," Merkel said. "I don't want to unravel this again after one year."
Climate activists say that without an earlier coal phase-out, the more ambitious climate protection targets which Merkel's government just agreed on cannot be achieved.