German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Friday that the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be broken, as social distancing measures and an accelerating inoculation campaign help lower the infection rate.

“The third wave appears to be broken,” he told a regular weekly news briefing on Germany’s pandemic management.

Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases, noted that the incidence of coronavirus infections was falling across all age groups, and he was hopeful of soon controlling the pandemic in Germany.

Germany’s health minister also said on Friday that the main challenge to increasing production of vaccines is how to swiftly and effectively transfer technology, and reiterated Berlin’s opposition to a U.S. proposal to waive patent protection.

Spahn told a news conference that “the main issue is not patent protection but production capacity.”

In a jab at the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, he also said: “I would be delighted if the United States shows the same willingness to export vaccines that we in Germany do.”