Police patrol Cologne streets in strict lockdown

Police in the western German city of Cologne on Saturday night were out on patrol to ensure people were wearing face masks and following new lockdown rules, fining those who were not.

Streets and squares in the city would have usually been packed with people, but now they almost empty.

Germany reported a record level of coronavirus deaths as it entered a harder lockdown on Wednesday, closing shops and schools to try to bring down stubbornly high new daily infections.

Official figures Friday show 33,777 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus and 813 additional deaths in the past day.

Germany had contained the coronavirus early in the pandemic before a recent surge.

There have been 1.4 million confirmed cases and more than 25,000 confirmed deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

(Image Credit: AP)