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Ms. Merkel, who has overseen a broad set of stimulus measures to support struggling businesses and workers, said the government would compensate small- and medium-sized businesses affected by closures for up to 75 percent of losses.

The measures aim to ease the strain on the country’s hospitals, where the number of patients has doubled in just 10 days, and halt the rapid spread of the virus before the coming holidays, without bringing the economy to a complete standstill.

Ms. Merkel was laughed at when she predicted last month that if people didn’t change their behavior, the country would face 19,000 infections per day by Christmas. Now, it looks like that number will be reached in November.

“Within weeks we will reach the limits of our health system,” Ms. Merkel said at a news conference, after agreeing with Germany’s 16 governors on the nationwide measures.

“The selection was carefully made, knowing that it will be hard and knowing that many people have developed ways to stay safe and acted responsibly,” she said. “But deciding how to reduce the number of contacts, without affecting the economy and schools, we made these decisions and think they are reasonable and politically acceptable.”

As the chancellor held a video meeting with the governors on Wednesday, several thousand people employed in the entertainment business marched through the heart of Berlin, decrying the measures that have left them out of work since early March.

More people have been protesting against restrictions, and Ms. Merkel acknowledged that introducing new measures two weeks earlier would have helped, but the political acceptance for such a move wasn’t there.