German virus cases top 2 million as Merkel urges tougher shutdown

Germany's total coronavirus cases topped two million on Jan. 15, as Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed for a "significant" tightening of restrictions to slow the infection rate.

The European Union's most populous country added another 22,368 new cases over the past 24 hours, Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) health agency said, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 2,000,958.
It also reported another 1,113 Covid-19 fatalities, taking the overall death toll up to 44,994.

The milestone comes hours after Merkel called for harsher curbs on public life to bring the outbreak under control.
At a meeting of senior members of her center-right CDU party, the German Chancellor said she wanted to bring forward crisis talks with regional leaders to "the coming week", participants told AFP.

They quoted her as saying the virus could only be stopped with "significant additional measures".
She also voiced concern about the coronavirus strain that recently emerged in Britain and is considered more contagious, saying people urgently need to reduce their social contacts.

Germany fared better than many of its neighbors in the early days of the pandemic, but has been hit hard by a second wave despite being in some form of shutdown since early November.

It is currently the 10th most affected country in the world, according to an AFP tally, but has still recorded fewer infections to date than EU peers France, Italy or Spain - despite having a larger population.

Britain has recorded more than three million cases and over 80,000 deaths.

Merkel and the leaders of Germany's 16 states were originally scheduled to hold their next meeting on January 25 to take stock of the latest measures.

Among the...