The total number of Germany's coronavirus deaths has crossed 40,000, as Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the coming weeks will be “the hardest” yet.

Germany recorded 465 deaths over the past 24 hours, the Robert Koch Institute for disease control said, raising the toll since the start of the pandemic to 40,343.

More than 1.9 million people have been infected so far, with almost 17,000 new cases added since Saturday.