BERLIN (AP) – The death toll from the coronavirus in Germany has risen to more than 50,000, a number that has risen rapidly in recent weeks, although infection figures are finally falling.
The country’s disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said Friday that another 859 deaths had been reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 50,642.
Germany had a relatively small number of deaths in the first phase of the pandemic and managed to quickly lift many restrictions.
But it has recorded much higher levels of infections in the fall and winter. Hundreds of deaths, sometimes more than 1,000, have been reported daily in the country by 83 million people in recent weeks. Germany reached 40,000 on January 10th.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will leave a light shining in a window at his Bellevue Palace in Berlin every Friday night, in memory of the dead and those fighting for their lives, his office said. He encouraged other Germans to do the same.
Steinmeier plans to lead a central memorial event for the dead after Easter.
The lights are meant as a sign that “deaths from the crown pandemic are not just statistics for us,” Steinmeier said. “Even if we don’t know their names and families, we know that every figure represents a loved one that we miss infinitely.”
Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed those comments this week, describing recent death figures as “terrible”. However, she said that daily infections decrease and fewer people receive intensive care than at Christmas.
In Europe, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain, all with smaller populations, still have a higher death toll.
The head of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, said this week that the explanation for the high death toll is “relatively simple, but relatively depressing”.
“The increase is simply related to the fact that the number of cases has increased so much,” he said.
Wieler said there are still many outbreaks in nursing homes – more than 900 today. Some homes are better prepared than others to fight the pandemic, he said. There are also a large number of cases among those over 80 years of age.
In general, new infections peaked in December. On Friday, the Robert Koch Institute reported 17,862 new cases, up from 22,368 a week ago. Germany’s total so far is just over 2.1 million. The number of new cases per 100,000 residents over seven days rose to 115.3, from nearly 200 a month ago. It is still well above the government’s target of a maximum of 50.
There are currently 4,787 patients with COVID-19 in intensive care, said Gernot Marx, head of the German intensive care unit, DIVI.
It fell from a peak of almost 5,800 on January 3, he said – “this has been the most critical situation, in my opinion, since there was intensive care in Germany.” He added that there were no peak signs of Christmas or New Year.
Germany’s current blockade has been extended this week until February 14 amid concerns about the possible impact of viral mutations, such as the one first detected in England.
Authorities are trying to encourage more people to work from home, thus reducing the number of users using public transport. Restaurants, bars, sports and leisure facilities have been closed since the beginning of November. Non-essential schools and shops followed in mid-December, and professional sports events take place without spectators.
Merkel says everyone in Germany will be given a vaccination by the end of September. There was frustration with the slow start of vaccinations. By Thursday, nearly 1.39 million people had received a first dose and more than 115,000 a second dose.
The United Kingdom has delayed the administration of the second dose for up to three months, so that it can give the first dose as much as possible. But Health Minister Jens Spahn said Germany would not follow suit, stressing concerns about a lack of study data and the need for the most vulnerable and elderly to receive “comprehensive” protection.
“We will, according to all the scientific bases we have at the moment, stay at … the recommended rate for the second dose,” Spahn said on Friday.
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Frank Jordans of Berlin contributed to this report.