Berlin, Jul 29 (IANS): Despite a recent slowdown in Germany's Covid-19 vaccination campaign, more than half of the country's population are now fully vaccinated, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases said on Wednesday.

German Minister of Health Jens Spahn spoke of "another milestone" via Twitter. "The more people who get vaccinated now, the safer we will be in autumn and winter," he wrote, Xinhua news agency reported.

In the past calendar week, nearly 3.2 million vaccine doses were administered in Germany, approximately 22 percent fewer than a week earlier, the RKI said.

Germany's seven-day incidence rate of new Covid-19 infections per 100,000 inhabitants has more than tripled since early July and reached 15.0 on Wednesday, up from 14.5 the previous day, according to the RKI.

In order to counter the rising Covid-19 figures and the simultaneous slowing of the vaccination pace, the head of the German Chancellery, Helge Braun, has suggested that those who fail to get their coronavirus vaccine should enjoy fewer freedoms. He said that unvaccinated people may find themselves being denied entry to restaurants, bars, cinemas or sporting events "because the risk to everyone else is too high."

To date, more than 3.76 million Covid-19 infections and 91,586 coronavirus-related deaths have been registered in Germany, the RKI said.