Germany has declared that its coronavirus crisis is 'under control' as the rate at which new people are being infected fell below a key milestone.

Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Friday that a lockdown introduced on March 18 'was successful' and that infection numbers have 'sunk significantly' since then. He spoke shortly after the Robert Koch Institute reported that the 'reproduction rate' of the disease in Germany had fallen to 0.7.

The reproduction rate, also known as 'R', is the number of people that a coronavirus carrier infects on average before they stop being infectious.

An 'R' rate of 1 means the number of new cases has stabilised, while a rate of less than 1 means the disease has gone into decline and new cases will begin falling.

It is considered a key milestone in breaking the back of an outbreak.

'The outbreak has - as of today - become controllable and manageable again,' Spahn told a news conference, adding that the health care system had 'at no time been overwhelmed so far'.

His optimism came despite researchers registering 3,380 new infections, bringing the total number of cases from 130,450 to 133,830.

The figure marks the largest daily increase for six days.