BERLIN — German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany will use its EU presidency later this year to direct the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, DPA reported.

"We will make it into a coronavirus presidency in order to overcome the coronavirus and its consequences," Maas wrote in an editorial for German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

"We have to learn lessons from the crisis, such as improving the EU's disaster preparedness and the joint procurement and production of life-saving medical goods," Maas wrote.

The minister said that one of the most important things after the crisis would be to "lift restrictions on free travel and on the internal market in an incremental and coordinated way."

Germany, which has one of Europe's biggest coronavirus caseloads, will take over the rotating EU presidency in the second half of 2020.

At least 120,000 people had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Saturday, according to figures compiled by DPA. An overall 2,678 people have died nationwide from Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus. — SPA