Germany has announced record coronavirus fatalities and infections today as its total death toll passed 100,000, with its most severe virus wave yet swelling just as a new government prepares to replace Angela Merkel's coalition.
Europe's largest economy recorded 351 Covid fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing the official death toll since the start of the pandemic to 100,119, in what Bild daily called a "grim milestone".
The weekly incidence rate also hit an all-time high of 419.7 new infections per 100,000 people, according to figures from the Robert Koch Institute health agency.
The escalating health crisis poses an immediate challenge to the new centre-left-led coalition government set to take over from Merkel's cabinet next month.