Parties lead Germany to biggest spike in coronavirus cases in three months
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Germany today reported its largest daily spike in new cases of coronavirus in more than three months, as authorities blamed people returning from holiday and boozy parties across the country.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany rose by 1,226 to 218,519 today, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) showed — marking the biggest daily increase since 9 May.
However the number of German coronavirus deaths edged up by six, remaining low at a total of 9,207.
“This is, no doubt, very worrying,” German health minister Jens Spahn told Deutschlandfunk radio.
“We see that due to holidaymakers coming back, but also due to all sorts of parties and family gatherings, we now have smaller and larger outbreaks in many regions, in nearly all parts of the country,” he added.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governments in charge of health protection began gradually easing coronavirus restrictions in May.
It followed two months of lockdown, which put Europe’s economy into its steepest recession on record.
Sentiment surveys and economic data now point to a quick, V-shaped recovery, Reuters reported, as long as another nationwide coronavirus lockdown in Germany can be avoided.
The UK this morning plunged into its own record-breaking recession, after GDP contracted by 20.4 per cent in the last three months.
Cases have also spiked in the UK, rising above a daily rate of 1,000 confirmed cases twice this week for the first time since late June.