high. the coefficient, the number affected by each covid sufferer, jumped to 1.28, its highest level since august. >> reporter: i'm fred pleitgen in berlin. the various european countries are struggling with the omicron variant of the coronavirus. germany is also bracing and a new german government wants to take action. olaf schultz is meeting with state leaders today and they want to put in place a flurry of new measures to try and at least slow down the spread of omicron. the center poogs of all this is restrictions on public gatherings. they want them to be limited to no more than ten people even if those people are vaccinated. now, all of this is not set to take hold for christmas. however, after christmas and of course will severely restrict new year's celebrations here in germany as large-scale celebrations will be all but impossible, especially since all this goes hand in hand with a