Germany is conducting more coronavirus tests than at any time since the outbreak of the virus, its government disease control agency said on Thursday.
“We had 860,000 tests last week. We have never had so many in Germany, that is great,” Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch institute (RKI), said Thursday. “This is exactly what we want and what we need.”
“The earlier we identify a person, the earlier we can treat them and stop the chains of infection,” Wieler added.
All eyes on the reproduction rate: Germany’s coronavirus reproduction rate currently stands at 0.76 on average, Wieler added. A reproduction rate of one means each person with coronavirus will infect an average of one other person.
Last week the RKI said that the reproduction number is an indicator authorities are watching out for when deciding on loosening coronavirus restrictions for the public. Public health experts say that a number of one or above would make it impossible to loosen restrictions.
Loosened restrictions and mandatory masks: Public life changed considerably for most Germans on Monday as the wearing of masks became mandatory in many public spaces across the country.
From last week, Germany loosened many of the restrictions on public life that were designed to halt the spread of coronavirus. Small shops, car dealers and bicycle stores were allowed to reopen.
But Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that Germany risks squandering the gains it had made in beating back Covid-19. She said she fully supported the measures to loosen restrictions, “but their implementation worries me. Partially, they appear to be very bold, maybe too bold.”
