German hospital body sees coronavirus infection rate slowing down next week

The coronavirus infection rate will likely slow down in Germany at the beginning to middle of next week, the head of the German hospital federation (DKG) told the Funke group of newspapers. "In the medium term, we expect infection rates to slow down due to social distancing," DKG President Gerald Gass said.

"However, this will not be significantly reflected in the registered infection numbers until the beginning to the middle of next week," he added. He said around 1,000 coronavirus patients were being treated in intensive care units in German clinics at the moment.