Germany’s coronavirus death toll crossed 1,000 on Thursday, while the total number of cases surpassed 83,000, according to the most recent statistics by local authorities.
Data analysis firm Risklayer and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, which compiled up-to-date numbers from nearly 400 local health authorities, reported that total deaths from coronavirus in Germany rose to 1,055 as of Thursday evening, and confirmed cases climbed to 83,751.
More than 21,000 people were estimated to have recovered from the virus so far, according to the statistics published by the Tagesspiegel daily.
Meanwhile, German health authorities announced on Thursday significant progress in increasing the number of beds in intensive care units, and their stock of ventilators.
Gerald Gass, the president of the German Hospital Federation, told local media that they have managed to increase the number of intensive care beds from 28,000 to nearly 40,000 in the last couple of weeks.
“Roughly 15,000 to 20,000 of them remain free,” he said in an interview with the Rheinische Post daily.
The number of ventilators was also increased from nearly 20,000 to 30,000.
Germany is the third worst-affected country by the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, but its death toll remained far lower than the two hardest-hit countries, Italy and Spain.
Italy's coronavirus death toll rose to 13,915 on Wednesday, the highest globally. Spain has recorded 10,003 fatalities so far.
Germany is pursuing a strategy of widespread coronavirus testing and tested more than 830,000 people in the last three weeks.
According to a recent study by the Robert Koch Institute, most of those infected in Germany are younger and middle-aged.
Less than 20% of the infected are among the high-risk group of people age 60 and over.
After first appearing in Wuhan, China in December, the virus has spread to 180 countries and regions.
Data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University shows worldwide infections topped 981,000 with over 50,200 deaths. Nearly 204,000 recovered from infections.
