Germany's 7-day COVID-19 incidence climbs to new record high

Special: Battle Against Novel Coronavirus

Germany's seven-day COVID-19 incidence rate continued to rise and hit a new record of 1,176.8 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases said on Monday.

The RKI registered 78,318 new cases in the previous 24 hours, around 15,000 more than a week ago. Last week, two years after the first case of COVID-19 was discovered in Germany, daily infections hit 200,000 for the first time.

Despite high case number due to the Omicron wave, the country's vaccination campaign has slowed down. Chancellor Olaf Scholz's goal to vaccinate 80 percent of the population against COVID-19 at least once by the end of January was missed.

Germany was not making enough progress with vaccinations, according to Scholz. "We should be much higher. We have the goal of making further progress. That is also happening, but not at the pace that would be necessary," he said last week.

As of Sunday, 75.8 percent of the German population had received at least one vaccine dose, according to official data. Nearly 53 percent of the population had also received a booster shot.