Germany has recorded a significant drop in coronavirus infections, the government’s agency for disease control and prevention said.

The drop shows that every patient is now infecting less than one other person on an average.

After this so-called reproduction number drops below one, an epidemic usually will slowly subside.

Germany is currently at 0.7, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said. This means that 10 coronavirus patients will only end up infecting seven other people – leading to a drop in the number of daily new infections.

But the RKI also cautioned that the projected number of cases among people over 80 years old is increasing particularly strongly, which will probably result in a “larger increase in the number of cases requiring hospitalization and intensive care.”

Its announcement late Thursday is likely to further fuel a debate in Germany about when its coronavirus-related restrictions on people’s movements and social contacts should be lifted.