Germany has reported its highest one-day total of new coronavirus cases, while the number of deaths linked to Covid-19 has climbed above 20,000, AP reports.

The national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, said Thursday that 23,679 new cases were confirmed over the last 24 hours. That’s just above the previous record of 23,648 from Nov 20.

Deaths, which have been relatively low in Germany compared with several other European countries, have increased markedly. Another 440 deaths were reported on Thursday, following a single-day record of 590 on Wednesday.

This brings the death toll so far to 20,372. Germany has reported some 1.24 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began.