People queue in front of a butcher at the weekly market in Hanau, Germany, April 4, 2020, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

LONDON (Reuters) - Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases have risen by 6,082 in the past 24 hours, a slight decrease from the day before, according to data from the government’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Saturday.

The reported reduction in new daily cases, which were down from 6,174 new cases a day earlier, could be a sign that the rate of infection is beginning to level off, but the government cautioned it was far too early to identify a trend.

Germany now has 85,778 cases, up from 79,696 infections on Friday, with the highest level of infections in Bavaria, according to the RKI statistics. Deaths have increased to 1,158, the RKI said, from 1,017 deaths as of Friday.

Lothar Wieler, president of the RKI said late on Friday that the rate of new infections had been brought under control thanks to more comprehensive measures to stop people from congregating in public or at work.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said the national lockdown could nonetheless stretch beyond Easter, but that the new figures gave cause for “very cautious hope”.

“The rise in confirmed new cases is going a bit slower than a few days ago,” she added. “But it is definitively way too early to identify a trend and therefore it is also too early to ease some of the strict rules we have set for ourselves.”

Germany’s 16 states have agreed to maintain curbs on movement until Apr. 19.