Germany's 7-day COVID-19 incidence rate exceeds 300 for first time since pandemic

BERLIN - Germany's seven-day incidence rate hit a new all-time high and reached 303.0 per 100,000 inhabitants, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases announced on Monday.

After daily infections exceeded 50,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic last week, the RKI registered 23,607 COVID-19 infections on Monday, more than 8,000 cases above last week's figure.

According to the German Intensive Care Availability Register (DIVI), the number of COVID-19 patients requiring treatment in intensive care units also kept climbing and reached 3,190 on Monday, after around 2,600 on the same day last week.

"We will contribute to making all the necessary decisions so that we can keep the infection situation well under control," said Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) ahead of coalition negotiations on Monday.

The rise of COVID-19 figures in Germany puts an increasing pressure on the coalition negotiations between SPD, Greens and the liberal party FDP which entered the final phase on Monday after first discussions in numerous working groups.

"We currently view the figures with great concern," deputy chair of the SPD parliamentary group, Dirk Wiese, told broadcaster ZDF on Monday.

According to an ongoing survey by market research institute YouGov, 64 percent of German citizens support a lockdown for unvaccinated people as was just enacted in Austria. The vaccination rate in Germany stood at 67.5 percent as of Monday, according to the RKI.