Germany may go ahead with 'short national lockdown' to tackle Covid-19

Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed a growing demand for a short, tough lockdown in Germany to curb the spread of the coronavirus as infection rates skyrocket.

Merkel said, the country needs a stable incidence below 100 and the government was looking at whether nationwide, rather than regional, measures were needed.

Germany is struggling to tackle a third wave of the pandemic and several regional leaders have called for a short, sharp lockdown while the country tries to vaccinate more people.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany rose by 9,677 on Wednesday to more than 2.9 million, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases said.