Bavarian finance minister Albert Furacker admitted the state will have €7.3bn (£6.3bn) less until the end of 2023 than had been expected pre-pandemic. Strict coronavirus restrictions remain in place for much of Germany which suffered from an initially sluggish vaccination programme and a deadly third wave of the virus.

Due to the Covid-19 crisis the German debt break, a constitutionally entrenched requirement not to borrow beyond a certain level, was suspended.

This was recently extended until at least the end of 2022.

On Friday, Mr Furacker said, “we will have to make use of this” during a visit to Nuremberg.

Earlier this week the German government released fresh figures showing the economy has taken another big hit from the third coronavirus wave.

The Ministry of Finance now expected to collect €2.7bn (£2.3bn) less than it has forecast in November.

They are also predicting lower tax incomes in 2022 than in their previous forecast.

By the end of 2023 officials expect this to cost the state of Bavaria €7.3bn (£6.3bn).

Mr Furacker is a member of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, sister party to Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

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EU member states handed responsibility for purchasing coronavirus vaccines to the European Commission.

However, it struggled and the EU is now lagging significantly behind the UK and US.

On Friday German authorities labelled Britain a “risk area” for coronavirus due to the new Indian variant.

This was despite the UK having a significantly lower Covid infection rate than Germany.

Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said he is “confident” the Indian variant is “more transmissible” than others in the UK.

Speaking at a press conference Boris Johnson said there is no evidence it can evade the current vaccines.

However, he warned it could still be highly disruptive.

The Prime Minister said: “I have to level with you, this new variant could pose a serious disruption to our progress.

“And I must stress that we will do whatever it takes to keep the public safe.”

The Government had been due to remove restrictions on socialising for June 21 but this is now under some doubt.

Despite its slow vaccine rollout – Germany is now speeding along with getting jabs in arms.

Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg.