Germany's disease control agency warned people to avoid contact over Christmas

The head of Germany's disease control agency has urged people to avoid contact over Christmas.

Speaking at the The Robert Koch Institute in Berlin on Tuesday, Lothar Wieler said: "Please limit your contacts to the bare minimum, don't travel, meet as few people as possible and if you do, then only the same people, and meet outside if possible."

He also commented on the new strain of coronavirus in the UK, saying: "We cannot yet definitively assess the significance of this for what is happening but we are monitoring it very closely. There are still many questions open."

Germany's disease control agency reported 19,528 newly confirmed infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of known cases since the start of the outbreak to 1,530,180.

Another 731 deaths from COVID-19 were reported in the past day, taking the total to 27,006.

(Image credit: AP)