Germany is extending its lockdown until April 18 and calling on citizens to stay at home for five days over the Easter holidays to try to break a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

In talks that ran deep into the night, Merkel pushed the leaders of Germany’s 16 states to take a tougher stance to fight the pandemic, reversing plans for a gradual re-opening of the economy agreed earlier this month after a sharp rise in the infection rate, according to Reuters.

“We are now in a very serious situation,” she told a news conference, adding that Germany was in a race against time to vaccinate its population against the coronavirus.