In Germany, 32,552 new infections with the coronavirus were detected in last 24 hours.
That high number means an increase of about 50 percent compared to the number of new infections reported on Wednesday by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German counterpart of the RIVM.
The total number of corona infections, with the latest figures from Thursday morning, comes to 1,719,373.
The number of Covid-19 patients in Germany who have succumbed to the disease rose by 964 last 24 hours. The total official death toll from the epidemic now stands at 33,071.
The German authorities have imposed a hard lockdown to prevent further spread of the virus. This will remain in effect until at least 10 January.
Germany has now also started vaccinating residents with the corona vaccine from the companies BioNTech and Pfizer.