Germany expects COVID-19 cases to peak in mid-February

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister expects the number of coronavirus infections in the country to keep rising for several weeks reaching hundreds of thousands of cases a day. Karl Lauterbach told German public broadcaster ZDF late Wednesday that “the wave will reach its peak roughly in mid-February.” Lauterbach warned that while hospitalization rates are currently low, clinics could see a severe strain then in the coming weeks, noting that the share of people over 50 who aren’t vaccinated is significantly higher in Germany than in other European countries, such as Italy and Britain. Germany’s disease control agency reported 133,536 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, and 234 deaths.