Passengers wearing face masks wait for train on a platform of a station in Berlin, capital of Germany, March 25, 2021. Daily COVID-19 infections in Germany rose sharply as 22,657 new cases were registered within one day, about 5,100 more than one week ago, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said Thursday. The country's seven-day COVID-19 incidence rate also rose from 108.1 per 100,000 people in the previous day to 113.3 Thursday, according to the federal government agency for disease control and prevention. (Photo by Stefan Zeitz/Xinhua)
BERLIN, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Daily COVID-19 infections in Germany rose sharply as 22,657 new cases were registered within one day, about 5,100 more than one week ago, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said Thursday.
The country's seven-day COVID-19 incidence rate also rose from 108.1 per 100,000 people in the previous day to 113.3 Thursday, according to the federal government agency for disease control and prevention.
To date, Germany has recorded more than 2.71 million cases and 75,440 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to the RKI.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said during her speech in the German Bundestag that the emergence of the B.1.1.7 (the COVID-19 variant that was first detected in Britain), which became dominant in the country, was a "major setback" in the fight against the pandemic.
"We are back in the phase of exponential growth," Merkel said.
Germany just extended its current COVID-19 lockdown until at least April 18. A complete five-day lockdown over the Easter holidays, however, was canceled one day after it was announced.
As of Wednesday, more than 3.6 million people had been fully vaccinated in Germany, bringing the country's vaccination rate to 4.3 percent, according to the RKI. Enditem
