Germany declares a COVID-19 ‘third wave’ has begun

The head of Germany’s public health agency on Friday warned that a third wave of coronavirus infections has already begun.

the president of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases (RKI), told the UN Journalists Association in Geneva on Wednesday.

“We have clear signs: The third wave in Germany has already begun,” said Lothar Wieler.

Thursday marks one year since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic.

Wieler’s comments came as the RKI recorded 14,356 new infections in the past 24 hours on Thursday, an increase of more than 2,400 over the prevous Thursday.

The infection rate also continued to rise, reaching 69.1 new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days for Germany as a whole. The infection rate on Wednesday was 65.4.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had previously warned the country could be caught in a third wave of infections if restrictive public health measures were lifted too quickly.

Italy, meanwhile, is reportedly set to impose another near national lockdown over the Easter weekend in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.

The move, which is expected to be signed into law on Friday, comes just over a year after it became the first country in the world to impose nationwide lockdown measures.