BERLIN — Germany’s death toll in the coronavirus pandemic has topped 60,000 even as new infections decline significantly. The country’s disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said Friday that 855 more deaths were reported over the past 24 hours.
That brought Germany’s total so far to 60,597. In Europe, the U.K., Italy, France, Russia and Spain have reported more deaths.
Germany had a relatively low death rate in the pandemic’s first phase, but saw much more infections in the fall and winter -- peaking around a month ago -- and hundreds of deaths per day in recent weeks.
The death toll hit 50,000 two weeks ago. A partial shutdown that started at the beginning of November was widened into a second lockdown in mid-December and is