Germany's Chancellor Merkel blames Kent variant as she cancels Easter

Germany extended its lockdown measures by another month and imposed several new restrictions, including largely shutting down public life over Easter, in an effort to drive down the rate of coronavirus infections. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the measures early this morning after a lengthy video call with the country’s 16 state governors, nearly three weeks after the two sides last agreed on a plan paving the way to relax some rules. Since then, infections have increased steadily as the more contagious variant first detected in Britain has become dominant. The restrictions previously set to run through March 28 will now…