Germany, which has taken steps to ease its lockdown measures, in recent days has seen its coronavirus reproduction rate increase.
Germany's Robert Koch Institute said on Saturday the COVID-19 reproduction rate in the country rose to 1.1, and on Sunday, it was 1.13, BBC News reports. This number indicates how many other people a person with COVID-19 infects. BBC notes the number had mostly stayed below 1 in Germany for the past three weeks, and last Thursday, it was 0.65, CNN reports.
This comes after German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced new steps to loosen lockdown restrictions, including allowing all shops to reopen. Restrictions will need to put back into place locally in areas where there's a surge in cases.
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"I think we can safely state that the very first phase of the pandemic is behind us," Merkel said. "But we need to be very much aware we are still in the early phases and we'll be in it for the long haul."
The Guardian reports that since the reproduction number "backdates known cases to their likely day of infection, around a week earlier," the rise wouldn't reflect the spread of COVID-19 immediately following the most recent steps, but it "could account for a new mood in the country following the first step of relaxation" in April.
Although the Robert Koch Institute said there's a "degree of uncertainty" in the numbers, CNN reports, it noted this rise in the reproduction rate "makes it necessary to observe the development very closely over the coming days." It also said it's unclear at this time "whether the decreasing trend in the number of incident cases observed over the past few weeks will continue or whether case numbers will again increase."
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