The northern German maritime state of Bremen has the country's highest Covid-19 vaccination rate by far, but it has become the hardest-hit by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, reporting the highest infection rate of any region in Germany.

Experts say that the spike in Bremen could herald where Germany as a whole is heading in the coming days, Reuters reports.

The seven-day infection rate in Bremen stood at 800 cases per 100,000 residents on Thursday, the highest in Germany and more than double the national rate of 303, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.

“I assume that Bremen is just a little further ahead than other federal states,” said Hajo Zeeb of the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen.