Germany’s coronavirus cases, deaths well down on New Year’s Day

On the first day of the new year, German health authorities reported 12,690 new coronavirus infections and 336 new deaths linked to the disease, lower than on previous days.

However, interpreting the data is difficult because fewer people are likely to be tested during the Christmas holidays and around the turn of the year, and not all offices may be submitting their data.

As a result, there may still be late reports, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control said on Saturday.

A week ago, on Christmas Day, 14,455 new infections and 240 deaths were recorded.

A peak of 1,129 new deaths was reached on Wednesday.

The RKI has recorded 1,755,351 confirmed infections since the beginning of the pandemic, while 33,960 people have died in connection with the virus.