Germany entered a stringent lockdown on Wednesday in an effort to get spurting coronavirus cases under control as the number of registered deaths from COVID-19 climbed up by 952, the highest daily increase yet.

Great worries that the pandemic is spiralling out of control in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, prompted Chancellor Angela Merkel and the 16 state governors to announce on Sunday a tough lockdown until January 10 at the earliest.

Shops and schools will stay closed from Wednesday in a pre-Christmas tightening of restrictions following a partial lockdown in November, which closed bars and restaurants but failed to contain a second wave of the pandemic.

Germany was more successful than many European countries in keeping the coronavirus under control in the first wave in the spring but the situation looks very different now. The Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases put the number of confirmed coronavirus cases at 1,379,238, an increase of 27,728. The total death toll in Germany is at 23,427. The previous highest daily increase in deaths was 598 on Friday.

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