Bundesliga to Return in 2nd Half of May After COVID-19 Hiatus

Two months after suspending play because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Bundesliga is preparing to resume its season at some point in May.

Per Amitai Winehouse of the Daily Mail, German chancellor Angela Merkel gave the league clearance to start playing games possibly as soon as May 15. 

On March 13, the Bundesliga announced it was suspending all matches through at least April 2 because of growing concerns about the pandemic. The league later extended that suspension through the end of April as the virus continued to spread across Europe.

Per CNN's Henrik Pettersson, Byron Manley and Sergio Hernandez, Germany's 167,239 confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses are the sixth-highest total of any country.

Despite that, Billy Perrigo of Time noted on March 30 the country's mortality rate of 0.9 percent was among the lowest in the world. The speculated reason: widespread testing that allowed the country to identify infected patients and get them in quarantine.

When the Bundesliga season was suspended, there were still nine weeks remaining, with relegation matches scheduled to begin on May 21.

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Bleacher Report's David Gardner interviews athletes and other sports figures for the podcast How to Survive Without Sports.