Germany has recorded more than 50,000 deaths from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, the Robert Koch Institute disease control centre has said.
It said 859 people died from the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 50,642. Germany survived the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic relatively well, but a second wave has hit it hard.
The country this week extended its current lockdown until 14 February and Chancellor Angela Merkel has not ruled out border checks to slow the spread of new, more contagious variants of the virus.
Europe's top economy closed restaurants, leisure and sporting facilities in November, then expanded the shutdown in mid-December to include schools and most shops to halt