Germany remembers nearly 80,000 dead in COVID pandemic

BERLIN  - Germany is paying tribute Sunday to the nearly 80,000 people it has lost to the coronavirus, even as the country struggles to get a grip on another rise in infections.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will lead a memorial event with other top officials at Berlin's Konzerthaus concert hall. His office says it is also dedicated to the bereaved "who could not accompany their relatives when they died and for whom important and comforting rituals of mourning were not possible.” Germany's confirmed death toll from COVID-19 stood at 79,914 on Sunday, an increase of 67 over the previous day. That is the fifth-highest total in Europe, after the U.K., Italy, Russia and France.