(Bloomberg) --
The number of new coronavirus deaths and confirmed cases in Germany slowed, with fatalities dropping to the lowest in five days.
Deaths rose by 148 to 5,723 in the 24 hours through Saturday morning, a smaller increase than Friday's daily rise of 260, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There were 1,416 new cases, bringing the total to 154,545, the fourth-highest in Europe.
With Spain, Italy and France, the hardest-hit countries in Europe, reporting their fewest deaths in weeks, European governments are considering ways to ease confinement measures that have crushed their economies. Germany has been spared the much higher number of fatalities seen elsewhere in Europe and globally.
“Testing is one of the keys to why we have been able to come through this crisis in relatively good shape until now,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday on broadcaster ZDF. “We tested very widely from the start and therefore had a very early picture of the development in Germany.”
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