Berlin confirms soaring Covid-19 infections

In total, 228,621 people have contracted Covid-19 in Germany since the pandemic began, 204,800 have beaten the disease and 9,253 have died, according to the Robert Kock Institute, or RKI, which also estimates that there are currently around 14,600 active Covid-19 cases in Germany.

The peak of the virus was registered at the beginning of April, when there were more than 6,000 new infections a day. The number of new cases has slowly increased since the end of July.

The reproduction factor or R number, comparing infections over consecutive periods of 4 days is 1.03, which reflects the evolution of infections from around 10 days ago, RKI said on Wednesday.

Comparing two consecutive periods of 7 days, which allows for a greater balance of the oscillations derived from localised outbreaks, the R number is 1.08, which reflects the evolution of infections from 8 to 16 days ago.