Berlin, Nov 11: Germany's public health body, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), said Thursday that the country crossed 50,000 new daily coronavirus cases for the first time.
The RKI said Germany reported 50,196 new cases within the past 24 hours. The public health body also registered 235 new deaths from the virus.
Germany's number of new cases per 100,000 people over the past week has now risen to 249.1.
The institute previously reported on Wednesday 39,676 new cases, which was also a record at the time.
The rising cases have alarmed Germany's top health officials and political leaders.
Virologist Christian Drosten said the country could witness as many as 100,000 more deaths from the virus and called for urgent action. Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing for talks with state premiers to craft a "quick and unified response" to the crisis.
Some parts of the country are putting more pressure on unvaccinated citizens. On Monday, Berlin will require a certificate of vaccination or recovery for people entering public venues such as restaurants, gyms and hairdressers.
Here's a look at the latest coronavirus-developments in other parts of the world:
A medical tech manufacturing company in Australia, Ellume, has recalled 2.2 million coronavirus tests shipped to the US due to reports of false positives. The recall was announced by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The agency categorized the recall as "Class I," which is the most serious type of recall.
"Use of these tests may cause serious adverse health consequences or death," the FDA said.
Ellume last month had issued a voluntary recall of 195,000 tests due to higher-than-expected rates of false positives.
Ellume had shipped around 3.5 million tests to the US in total.
US President Joe Biden's administration said over 900,000 children from the ages of five to 11 are anticipated to have received their first vaccine jab by the end of Wednesday. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently greenlit the BioNTech-Pfizer shot for that age group.
Officials in the province of Ontario, Canada are backtracking on a plan to lift restrictions on large public social gatherings. The province was expected to lift capacity limits on venues such as night clubs and bars by November 15.
The province has witnessed a rise in coronavirus cases in recent weeks.
"To protect our hard-fought progress and ensure we can continue to manage COVID-19 for the long-term, more time is needed before we can take the next step forward in our reopening plan," the Ontario officials said in a statement.
Source: DW