New cases of coronavirus infection in Germany have reached the level of 8 to 8 in the last 24 hours, official figures showed on Thursday, not reaching the daily level seen since the outbreak began.
The numbers skyrocketed just hours after Chancellor Angela Merkel met with leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states to agree to tougher sanctions designed to slow the spread of the infection.
The highest number of new cases was reported in a single day on March 28, at 6,294, according to the Robert Koch Institute for Disease Control.
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday night announced new restrictions on people gathering at events as well as wearing mandatory masks in crowded places.
Under the new measure, if an area records more than 35 new infections per 100,000 people in seven days, the mask will become mandatory in people where people have close contact.
“We can see that … infection rates are rising and in some regions we have very high infection rates,” Merkel said.
“So we must stop uncontrolled or exponential growth.”
The number of people allowed to gather will also be limited to 25 in public and 15 in private places.
Once the threshold of 50 new infections per 100,000 is exceeded, more stringent restrictions will apply.
This includes limiting private gatherings to 10 people or two and closing restaurant restaurants after 11 p.m.
Merkel has warned that even more curbs could be imposed if the new infection’s upward trajectory is maintained.
“We’ll see if what we’ve done today is enough,” he said after Wednesday’s decision.
fec / rma
