The death toll from coronavirus in Germany is “very worrying”, the head of the Robert Koch Institute of Infectious Diseases (RKI) said on Thursday when the country reported its highest death toll per day of 1,244.
New infections with Covid-19 ‘should reduce a lot’, Lothar Wieler told journalists in Berlin, adding that ” intensive care units have never been as exhausted as in recent days. 5,200 patients are now being treated in German ICUs with 90% ventilation.
The RKI head says the average age of patients in intensive care units is about 60 years.
Germany is on alert for new, more contagious mutations of the virus, Wieler said. Sixteen new coronavirus cases related to the variant from the United Kingdom and four new coronavirus cases related to the variant from South Africa have been detected in the country.
On Thursday, Germany recorded 25,164 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total score to 1,978,590, according to the latest RKI data.
The RKI chief said the current exclusion ‘is not as effective as in the spring’, which calls on German citizens to ” stay at home where possible ”, and urges employers to let employees work from home.
On Wednesday, Health Minister Jens Spahn hoped Germany would be able to lift all coronavirus closure measures in early February.