The number of coronavirus deaths in Germany is “very worrying,” the head of the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases (RKI) said on Thursday, as the country reported the highest number of 1,244 pandemic deaths in a single day.
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, said the head of RKI.
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 were detected in the country.
On Thursday, Germany registered 25,164 new coronavirus infections, reaching 1,978,590, according to the latest RKI data.
The RKI chief said the current blockade in place is not “as effective as in the spring”, urging German citizens to “stay home whenever possible” and urged employers to allow employees to work from home.
On Wednesday, the Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, shattered the hope that Germany will be able to lift all measures to block the coronavirus in early February.