Concerns grow over rising COVID-19 infections in Germany

 Germany’s government urged citizens Wednesday to keep ir guard up and stick to public health guidelines, as new COVID-19 infections hit a three-month high and schools reopened in country's most populous state.

Germany's response so far has widely been seen as successful in slowing spre of pandemic efficiently and quickly, but country's disease control authority on Wednesday reported 1,226 new infections. That was highest number since early May, although figure has topped 1,000 on several days recently.

Health Minister Jens Spahn said smaller and mid-sized outbreaks have occurred in almost all regions, largely driven by travelers returning from abro and people partying or having family garings.

“This is worrying, without doubt,” Spahn told Deutschlandfunk rio. “And it can naturally le to a new dynamic, if we don’t all w exercise caution.”

In early days of pandemic aver of people infected was 50; it is w 34.

Spahn reiterated appeals to wear masks, keep distances and t go overboard in social settings, while expressing skepticism about a new vaccine approved by Russia, first country worldwide to do so.

“It’s t about being first one,” Spahn said. “But it’s about having an effective, tested and refore secure vaccine.”

Germany has recorded 218,519 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 9,207 deaths, according to Robert Koch Institute, national disease control center. At height of pandemic in early April, re were about 6,000 new cases each day.

Many of current new infections were people who contracted virus during visits to western Balkans, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Spain, Robert Koch Institute said.

uptick comes as students are returning to school across country, ding to concerns.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said restoring ecomic activity and restarting schools were both critical. He urged Germans t to grow lax about wearing masks or keeping distances, and to practice careful hygiene measures.

“We need to be careful and vigilant,” Seibert said.

Some 2.5 million children were returning to school Wednesday in rth Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, which has strictest rules in country — including that students above elementary school must wear masks at all times, including in class.

eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which has seen country’s lowest number of coronavirus infections, took a different approach when it became first state to send children back to school on Aug. 3, with mask regulations or social distancing rules. It was forced to temporarily close two schools four days later after a student from one and teacher from or tested positive for COVID-19.

Most of Germany’s 16 states have some sort of a mask rule, usually requiring m in hallways but t in classrooms or schoolyards. Mecklenburg has w implemented such a rule as well, but only for students above primary-school .

In Brandenburg, where school resumed Monday, a child and a worker at an after-school program tested positive on Wednesday and authorities were awaiting test results for 68 people who h been in contact with m.

And in Schleswig-Holstein in country's rth, where students also went back to class on Monday, a primary school was almost immediately shut down after a teacher tested positive, though it was expected to soon reopen. Two gres at a second school were also sent home on Wednesday as a precaution after a student's sibling tested positive.