Munich, 11 November 2021 (dpa/MIA) - Bavaria's state premier, Markus Soeder, has blamed low vaccination rates in southern Germany for the rapid increase in coronavirus infections. Speaking to the German broadcaster ARD on Thursday, he rejected accusations that politicians had reacted too late. "It's not the states' fault," he said, "some people are still behaving in an unreasonable way." Soeder called for a nationwide effort to stamp out fake vaccination cards. In Bavaria, both the infection and death rates are far above the national average. The state government declared a new state of emergency from Thursday. Among other things, this will allow the state's Interior Ministry to coordinate the work of the authorities in medical care throughout the state. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the Bavarian district of Rottal-Inn continued to have the highest infection rate in Germany, with an incidence of 1140.4 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days. Four other Bavarian municipalities feature in Germany's top five. The RKI reported 71 new pandemic deaths in Bavaria on Thursday morning, almost a third of the 234 deaths reported nationwide. The vaccination rate in Bavaria is the lowest in western Germany. As of Wednesday 65.2 per cent of citizens were fully vaccinated.