Germany reports over 169,000 COVID-19 cases

New infections with COVID-19 in Germany continued to fall as the number of confirmed cases increased by 357 within one day to 169,575, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced on Monday.

Last week, between 680 and 1,300 new daily cases had been reported to the RKI. At the height of the pandemic in Germany, more than 6,000 new COVID-19 infections had been recorded by the RKI, the federal government agency for disease control and prevention, on a single day.

The reproduction rate of COVID-19 in Germany increased to 1.13, according to the daily situation report by the RKI for Sunday. In the past days, the reproduction rate had been between 0.65 and 0.71.

The increase in the reproduction rate "makes it necessary to observe the development very closely over the coming days," said the RKI. The RKI and Chancellor Angela Merkel have repeatedly said that restrictions could only be eased if the reproduction rate in Germany was well below one.

According to the RKI, the death toll from the coronavirus in Germany increased by 22 to 7,417 on Monday, resulting in a fatality rate of COVID-19 cases of 4.4 percent.

The estimated number of people in Germany who had already recovered from COVID-19 increased by around 1,300 within one day to 145,600 on Monday, according to the RKI.