It will be weeks before German coronavirus cases fall, says RKI health institute

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases (RKI) appealed to Germans on Tuesday to keep contact with other people to an absolute minimum and not to travel over Christmas to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

"It will take several weeks for the number of cases to fall .. and for number of dead to fall," RKI head Lothar Wieler told reporters.

(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle and Madeline Chambers; Editing by Riham Alkousaa)