The nationwide seven-day incidence of corona infections has again decreased slightly and is now 5.0.
As the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced on Friday morning, citing information from the health authorities, 649 new infections and 69 further deaths were registered within one day.
The day before, the incidence, which indicates the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week, was 5.1, a week ago it was 6.2.
According to the RKI, 774 new infections and 62 deaths were recorded last Friday.
According to the RKI, the total number of corona cases recorded in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic is now 3,729,682.
The total number of registered deaths rose to 91,007.
The RKI put the number of those recovered from Covid 19 disease at around 3,626,800.
No lockdown in autumn?
According to Chancellor Helge Braun (CDU), the Federal Government will not rely solely on so-called incidences when determining measures to combat the pandemic.
Although these would continue to play an important role, Braun said on Friday in the MDR.
"But if we are now in the situation that a large number of citizens are vaccinated, we must of course include other factors."
According to Braun, the hospital admissions in connection with the corona virus should move more into focus.
"The question is, what proportion of the incidence actually leads to more severe courses?"
It is also about observing how well the vaccinations against different corona variants worked.
"If vaccinated people come to the hospital more and more, that would be a signal that we are either dealing with a variant or that the success of the vaccination is already waning, and that we have to re-vaccinate," said the head of the Chancellery.
The vaccination campaign has recently gained significantly more momentum.
The CDU politician does not expect another lockdown in autumn.
"As long as the vaccinations work well, a lockdown at the expense of those who are fully vaccinated is out of the question," he emphasized.
Many areas that had been completely closed in the past should "remain open to this large part of the population".
School closings as a last resort
In the case of a fourth corona wave, according to the chairman of the Conference of Ministers of Education, Britta Ernst (SPD), school closings should be the last thing to think about. "The long closings have had consequences for children and young people, not only in the technical but also in the psychosocial area," said Brandenburg's education minister in the newspapers of the Funke media group (Friday). "Every new restriction that we make throws us back in the catch-up process."
Ernst was optimistic that the schools could start full classroom teaching after the summer vacation.
"All teachers have had two options for vaccinations, and we have the option of tests, which we didn't have last year," she said.
"Experts tell us that with these framework conditions, schools could also be kept open with the delta variant."
FDP boss Lindner calls for school strategy
FDP leader Christian Lindner also spoke out against the closure of schools in the event of a possible fourth wave.
He called on the Standing Conference and the Federal Government to meet this month to discuss a strategy.
"The focus must be on the expansion of the lollipop tests, hygiene concepts, air purifiers and vaccination offers," said Lindner to the Funke-Blätter.
The Education and Science Union (GEW) and the General Secretary of the Federal Schoolchildren Conference, Dario Schramm, also campaigned for the purchase of air filters for schools.
The devices could make a significant contribution to preventing infections, Schramm told the Funke newspapers.
"We must now use all possibilities."
KMK President Ernst warned against expecting too much from this technology.
"As far as I know, there has not been a situation anywhere where the use of an air filter would have prevented distance learning or alternating lessons," she said.