Merkel backs tougher virus curbs as German deaths hit record

Merkel backs tougher virus curbs as German deaths hit record BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel advocated tougher restrictions on public life Wednesday and pleaded with her compatriots to cut down on socializing as the country reported its... AP NEWS

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel advocated tougher restrictions on public life Wednesday and pleaded with her compatriots to cut down on socializing as the country reported its highest single-day death toll of the coronavirus pandemic.

Germany is gradually moving toward a tighter lockdown, at least for a limited period after Christmas, as new virus cases remain stubbornly high — and are even beginning to creep higher — despite a partial shutdown that started on Nov. 2.

The national disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, reported 590 deaths related to COVID-19 over the past 24 hours — more than 100 higher than the week-old previous record. It counted 20,815 new daily infections, compared with 17,270 a week earlier. Germany, which has 83 million people, has now recorded nearly 1.22 million cases, including 19,932 deaths in the pandemic.

“We are in a decisive, perhaps the decisive, phase of fighting the pandemic,” Merkel told parliament Wednesday. “The figures are at much too high a level,” a visibly frustrated chancellor added, describing as “very alarming” the rising number of people requiring intensive care and dying.