The virus situation shows no signs of abating just yet, as the tighter restrictions are now extended to 10 January from 20 December previously
The bright spot is that active cases have sort of hit a plateau around 290,000 to 300,000 cases in the past week but the daily case count continues to keep at similar levels as seen over the last two to three weeks in Germany.
Meanwhile, another 479 deaths were reported and that marks the second deadliest day of the pandemic (after yesterday), bringing the total tally to 17,602 persons.
In case you missed it, German authorities have decided to extend the tighter restrictions from until 20 December to 10 January next year instead amid the current predicament.
Merkel mentioned that another round of consultations would be held on 4 January but "in principle, things will remain as they are". However, the restrictions on gatherings is to be eased slightly for the Christmas period to allow families to meet. D:
As for the bigger picture, Germany's vaccine panel warned that it may take more than a year to vaccinate the entire population of the country due to capacity limits.
In terms of healthcare capacity, there were 3,957 (+38) coronavirus patients requiring intensive care as of yesterday with 5,273 (19%) intensive care beds still available.
