Germany recorded its highest daily number of coronavirus cases on Thursday with more than 65,000 new infections.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country’s disease control agency, confirmed 65,371 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, continuing the upward trend that experts have been warning about for weeks.
The virus claimed 264 more lives, bringing the country’s death toll in the pandemic to 98,538, Deutschland.com reports.
The agency’s director (of RKI), Lothar Wieler, said Germany needs to increase its vaccination rates to significantly above 75%, from 67.7% at present. Some regions in Germany have vaccination rates as low as 57.6%.
He also called for the closure of clubs and bars, an end to large-scale events and access to many parts of public life to be limited to those with vaccine or recovery certificates.
Germany has seen a resurgence of coronavirus as people spend more time indoors during the colder months, and a large number of people are still unvaccinated against the disease.
Germany’s central government and premiers of federal states are scheduled to hold a videoconference to organize a wider vaccination campaign and introduce tougher restrictions, especially for unvaccinated people.
Meanwhile German Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to introduce tougher restrictions on unvaccinated citizens in the wake of the news surge in infections after holding a crisis meeting.
Under the new rules, unvaccinated persons who have tested negative to the virus, are set to lose their access to some public places like restaurants and concert halls.
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