A poster promoting the wearing of the mask on a store window on October 22, 2020 in Munich, Germany.

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Christof STACHE / AFP

The number of coronavirus deaths this Saturday exceeded 10,000 in Germany, a country so far relatively spared by the pandemic but now hit hard by the epidemic rebound.

The Robert Koch benchmark health watch institute (RKI) has counted 10,003 deaths since the start of the health crisis, 49 more than the day before.

In total, 418,005 people are infected with Covid-19 there, or 14,714 more in less than 24 hours, a new daily record also, even if this figure includes cases that had not been recorded the day before in due to a technical failure in the data transmission.

The previous record was set Thursday, the RKI had then recorded 11,287 new cases in one day.

A "very serious" situation

The president of this highly respected institution in Germany estimated Thursday that the situation in the country was "very serious", urging the population to respect barrier gestures to contain the progression of contamination.

"The virus can spread uncontrollably" in some regions since September, warned Lothar Wieler, explaining that "young people are currently the most exposed to the virus".

Germany, which until now had rather been spared by the first wave in the spring, has been facing for several weeks, like all European countries, a sharp increase in cases of Covid-19 infection.

Hardening of measures

Faced with the epidemic rebound, the German authorities have tightened measures against the pandemic, in particular adopting assembly bans.

Local restrictions have also been decided, such as in Berlin, where the wearing of masks has been imposed on certain busy streets.

An alpine canton in the south of the country in Bavaria, around Berchtesgaden, was imposed virtual confinement at the start of the week.

Chancellor Angela Merkel solemnly asked the population last Saturday to reduce social relations as much as possible, calling for “staying at home” as much as possible.

"What will be winter, what will be our Christmas, will be decided in the days and weeks to come", she had warned.

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