The federal and state health ministers will meet at short notice on Wednesday for a video conference to discuss a change to the corona rules.
A shortening of the quarantine is under discussion in order to be able to maintain important supply areas in the event that the number of infections should rise sharply due to the spread of the Omikron variant.
The education ministers of the federal states also meet for a special service.
They want to discuss how school operations can be secured if the Omikron wave grows.
In some federal states such as Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg, the virus variant Omikron is already predominant, according to the responsible state authorities.
In some regions, requirements are already being tightened.
The nationwide seven-day incidence has been increasing day by day since December 30th.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the Prime Ministers of the federal states want to set the further course and take new decisions on Friday.
Incidence rises to 258.6
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) again reported an increase in the official nationwide seven-day incidence.
The RKI gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on this Wednesday morning at 258.6.
The RKI continues to assume that new infections will be under-recorded due to fewer tests and reports in the course of the holidays and vacations.
For comparison: the previous day the value was 239.9, a week ago it was 205.5, and a month ago it was 439.2.
The health authorities in Germany reported 58,912 new corona infections to the RKI within one day.
Exactly one week ago there were 40,043 infections.
This means that the number is no longer far removed from the previous daily high.
The record was 65,371 new infections on November 18.
The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was given by the RKI on Tuesday as 3.12 (Monday 3.07).
According to the new information, 346 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours.
A week ago there were 414 deaths.
The number of people who died with or with a proven infection with the Sars-CoV-2 virus rose to 112,925.
The RKI has counted 7,297,320 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic.
The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections are not recognized.
The RKI stated the number of those who had recovered on Wednesday morning at 6,581,800.
Lauterbach for contact restrictions
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to enforce tougher contact restrictions in addition to shortened quarantine times.
"Unfortunately, tightening will be necessary to counter the heavy wave that is coming our way," he told the editorial network Germany.
"I will make suggestions."