<span style="color: #222222;">Germany has exceeded 50,000 Covid cases for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic as it recorded, 50,196 new COVID-19 infections yesterday, according to health authorities.<br />''<br />''Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the rise in infections as "dramatic".<br />''<br />''Her spokesperson said, the pandemic is returning in a new spectacular fashion and called on regional authorities to take further steps to quell the outbreak.<br />''<br />''Germany's relatively low vaccination rates of just over 67 percent are also cited as one of the reasons for the outbreak.<br />''<br />''From Monday, Berlin will ban unvaccinated people from entering restaurants, terraces, bars, sports halls, and hairdressers.<br />''<br />''Over 4.9 million people have been infected by COVID-19 in Germany since the beginning of the pandemi</span><br />