February 3

Germany has reported a record daily count of more than 208,000 new cases of the coronavirus.

The country's infectious disease agency, the Robert Koch Institute, confirmed 208,498 infections on Wednesday.

The total number has exceeded 10 million.

Germany is seeing a rapid surge in infections of the Omicron variant.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach says that the number of new daily cases could reach 400,000.

The German government is stepping up its call for more people to get vaccines. As of Wednesday, 74.1 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated.

The German parliament has begun discussing a vaccine mandate, but some members of the ruling parties are against compulsory vaccinations.

NHK