Germany: rate of virus infection has crept up

Germany's disease control centre says the country's rate of coronavirus infections has crept up but the number of new infections remains at a manageable level.

Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute told reporters Tuesday that the so-called "R" factor _ the number of people infected by every person with COVID-19 _ is now 0.96.

Authorities have said they want to try to keep the factor below 1 in order to keep the pandemic manageable for the country's health care system.

It had been around 0.7 before Germany eased lockdown restrictions on April 20 to allow smaller businesses to open, while keeping social distancing in place, but it's too early to say whether that move has led to the increase.

Wieler says though the R factor is important, Germany is currently seeing about 1,000 new infections reported per day, down from a high of some 6,000, and the health care system can cope with that.

Germany is also reporting nearly 3,000 people recovering per day from the virus, which has infected a total of nearly 160,000 people in the country and killed about 6,000.

As the regulations are loosened, Wieler is urging Germans to continue to abide by social distancing guidance, wear masks while on public transportation or shopping, and to stay at home when possible.

"We don't want the number of cases to start increasing again; we don't want to have to treat more people seriously ill with COVID-19 in our country again; we don't want our health care system to be overwhelmed," he said.

The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.