The daily number of new coronavirus infections in Germany remains high but the country's partial lockdown is having a positive effect, the head of the Robert Koch Institute disease control centre said on Thursday. "The situation ... is still serious, very serious," Lothar Wieler told a press conference. "The number of cases has stabilised at a high level in the last two weeks and is not rising any further" but is "still very high, much too high," he said, adding he was "optimistic" that the numbers would soon start to fall again. fec/dlc/ach