Germany sets another daily COVID record

Germany has confirmed more than 7,000 new coronavirus infections for the first time, its second consecutive daily record.

"With more than 7,000 new infections, we have an increase today that we had not yet seen in Germany, and the momentum of infections is rising constantly," German government spokeswoman Martina Fietz said in Berlin. "We must take care that we keep control of what is happening and get a grip on the figures."

The Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national disease control centre, said early Friday that 7,334 new cases were confirmed in the previous 24 hours. That compares with 6,638 a day earlier.

Until this week, Germany's highest recorded figure was nearly 6,300 in late March, though testing has expanded vastly since then. Figures tend to peak around the end of the week, but the latest reading underlines a sharp upward trend in recent weeks.

"We can't repeat often enough that the pandemic can only be contained if chains of infection are recognized and broken," Fietz said. "But the higher the number of new infections, the more difficult tracing will become. And some health offices are already at their limit now."‪

Germany is still in relatively good shape compared with several neighbouring countries, which also are seeing record figures. Earlier this week, the federal and state governments agreed to toughen mask-wearing rules and make bars close early in areas where infections are high.

Germany has confirmed more than 348-thousand cases in total since the pandemic began, including 9,734 deaths -- an increase of 24 compared with Thursday.‪

This story has not been edited by www.republicworld.com and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.