The death toll from coronavirus deaths in Germany is “very worrying,” the head of the Robert Koch Institute of Infectious Diseases (RKI) said on Thursday, as the country recorded the highest number of deaths from a pandemic. sol dia, of 1,244.
New Covid-19 infections “must be massively reduced,” Lothar Wieler told reporters in Berlin, adding that “intensive care units have never been as depleted as in recent days.” There are now 5,200 patients treated in German ICUs with 90% ventilation.
The average age of patients in intensive care units is about 60 years, the head of RKI said.
Germany is on high alert for new, more contagious mutations in the virus, Wieler said. Sixteen new cases of coronavirus associated with the UK variant and four new cases of coronavirus associated with the South African variant have been detected in the country.
On Thursday, Germany recorded 25,164 new coronavirus infections, adding up to 1,978,590, according to the latest RKI data.
The head of RKI said the current closure is not as effective as in the spring, and urged German citizens to stay home whenever possible and urged employers to allow employees to work from home.
On Wednesday, Health Minister Jens Spahn had hopes that Germany could lift all coronavirus blocking measures in early February.