Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach has warned against carelessness before the planned lifting of corona restrictions in Germany.

"The situation is objectively much worse than the mood," said the SPD politician on Friday in Berlin, with a view to the sharp increase in the number of infections.

He described the situation as critical and opposed general assessments that the omicron variant was milder.

"We cannot be satisfied with a situation where 200 to 250 people die every day." This is an intolerable situation that needs to be addressed.

Lauterbach defended the new regulations proposed by the federal government for further possible protective measures beyond the spring.

According to a draft for a new legal basis, general basic measures should be possible and further options for intervention in "hotspots" with a critical infection situation.

The background is a decision by the federal and state governments that all extensive everyday restrictions should be lifted by March 20th.

Lauterbach said he expected such "hotspots" in many federal states because of the infection situation.

The measures planned for the future would therefore have to be implemented very quickly in just a few days.

He called on the state governments not to linger on criticizing the law, but to prepare for its use now.

Several countries are calling for more protective instruments.

The minister justified the fact that further restrictions should be linked to a high clinical burden or more dangerous virus variants in a region.

Such encroachments on freedom would have to be justified in order to have a legally secure regulation.

Lauterbach emphasized again that the general obligation to vaccinate is absolutely necessary in order to avoid new broad restrictions in autumn.

For the ninth day in a row, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported an increase in the seven-day incidence to 1,439.0 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days.

The health authorities reported 252,836 new cases in one day, and 249 other deaths were also registered within 24 hours.