The number of daily Covid-19 infections in Germany continued to rise strongly, exceeding 65,000 for the first time since the pandemic began, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases has announced
Daily infections increased by around 15,000 within one week as the country's seven-day Covid-19 incidence rate climbed to 336.9 cases per 100,000 people, according to the RKI. A week ago, the seven-day incidence rate still stood at 249.1.
"We are heading into a serious emergency at the moment. We will really have a very bad Christmas if we do not take countermeasures now," said RKI President Lothar Wieler on Wednesday during an online debate.
"We have never been as worried as we are now," added Wieler. The number of critically ill Covid-19 patients is rising, he said, adding that for people suffering from strokes, it can take up to two hours to find a free intensive care bed in some places, Xinhua news agency reported.
As of Wednesday, 56.4 million people in Germany have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, bringing the country's vaccination rate to 67.8 per cent, according to the RKI.
Global scenario
Meanwhile, the global coronavirus caseload has topped 255.9 million while the deaths have surged to more than 5.13 million and vaccinations to over 7.59 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
In its latest update on Friday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll and the total number number of vaccine doses administered stood at 255,994,694, 5,131,102 and 7,596,483,034, respectively.
The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 47,528,607 and 768,658, according to the CSSE. The second worst hit country in terms of cases is India (34,478,517 infections and 464,623 deaths), followed by Brazil (21,989,962 infections and 612,144 deaths).
The other worst countries with over 5 million cases are the UK (9,772,663), Russia (9,063,318), Turkey (8,505,190), France (7,453,941), Iran (6,063,775), Argentina (5,312,089), Spain (5,074,027), Germany (5,233,832) and Colombia (5,040,665), the CSSE figures showed.
Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are Mexico (291,573), Russia (255,448), Peru (200,741), Indonesia (143,709), the UK (143,999), Italy (133,034), Colombia (127,963), Iran (128,634), France (119,333) and Argentina (116,341).
(With inputs from IANS)
