BERLIN, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The rapid rise in Germany's COVID-19 cases is very worrying, the country's public health agency Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Tuesday.
"We had all managed to keep the number of cases stable over several weeks" in Germany, said RKI President Lothar Wieler during a press conference in Berlin. Around four weeks ago, only 300 to 500 new cases had been recorded by the RKI daily. At some point, the figures had been even lower.
This development was a "great success" which showed "that we can contain the virus," said Wieler.
Last Friday, however, the RKI warned that the number of new daily COVID-19 cases in Germany was "significantly higher than in the previous weeks."
The number of COVID-19 cases in Germany increased by 633 within one day to 206,242 on Tuesday, according to the RKI. A total of 9,122 people had died from the new coronavirus in Germany.
Wieler criticized those who were not taking the pandemic seriously, taking aim at partygoers whom he called "reckless," German news agency dpa reported.
Holidaymakers were also urged to stick to the rules while abroad. Wieler said it was too early to say whether this was the beginning of a second wave of infections, but he did not rule it out, dpa said.
Many scattered COVID-19 outbreaks had been reported across Germany, according to the RKI daily situation report from Monday. Among them was a COVID-19 outbreak among harvest workers of an agricultural company in Bavaria.
At the agricultural company, more than 170 harvest workers had tested positive for the coronavirus and almost 500 people were under quarantine.
As a consequence, Bavaria's Minister-President Markus Soeder announced on Monday that a fine of 25,000 euros (29,327 U.S. dollars) instead of the previous 5,000 euros would be imposed for violations of hygiene regulations.
