Germany: COVID-19 not contained yet, despite progress

BERLIN (AA) - Germany has managed to slow the spread of new coronavirus cases, but the outbreak is far from being contained, the country’s disease control agency announced on Tuesday.

Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Professor Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), said the latest figures showed that the lockdown measures were bearing fruit.

“We can observe some positive trends, but we cannot say that the outbreak is contained,” he said, and called on citizens to continue social distancing and follow basic hygiene measures.

As of Sunday, Germany has more fully recovered coronavirus patients than people still infected with the virus, according to the institute .

Wieler said nearly 68,200 people have recovered from the virus so far, according to the estimates of his institution.

Coronavirus cases rose by 2,082 to 125,098 on Tuesday morning, marking the lowest daily rise since March 23.

The institute registered 170 new deaths from coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 2,969.

- Easing lockdown

The RKI report on latest coronavirus figures will be decisive for the German government’s decision this week on whether or not to relax existing lockdown measures.

The government imposed strict lockdown measures on March 22, ordering all non-essential shops to close, canceling festivals, sports events, and banning any social contact among more than two people in public.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to hold a video conference on Wednesday with the premiers of federal states to reassess the situation.

Germany has the fifth-highest tally of reported COVID-19 infections in the world, ranking behind the U.S., Spain, Italy, and France. But its death toll remains far lower than other hard-hit countries.

Besides widespread coronavirus testing, Germany has also significantly raised the bed capacity of intensive care units in hospitals: from 28,000 to nearly 40,000 in a couple of weeks.

As of Tuesday, hospitals across the country had more than 8,500 free intensive care beds for coronavirus patients.

Over 1.92 million COVID-19 cases have now been reported in 185 countries and regions since last December, with Europe and the U.S. being the worst-hit, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

So far, more than 119,700 people have died and over 458,500 recovered around the world.