A total of 30,880 probable vaccine breakthroughs have been registered since February 2021, according to a weekly report by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) published on Thursday evening.

However, the vast majority of people who contracted COVID-19 during this period had not been vaccinated.

According to the RKI, 4,562,948 COVID-19 cases have been registered in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Based on these figures, the RKI calculated the effectiveness of the vaccination. "By comparing the proportion of fully vaccinated among COVID-19 cases with the proportion of fully vaccinated in the population, it is possible to roughly estimate the effectiveness of the vaccination," the report says. According to this, the vaccination protects young people aged 18 to 59 years from 96 percent from hospitalization and 97 percent from treatment in the intensive care unit. In older people aged 60 and over, the vaccination prevents both 94 percent.

The young age groups are also almost completely protected from a fatal course of the disease.

Only one death was registered among those vaccinated between the ages of 18 and 59 years.

In the older age group from 60 years of age, the vaccination protects 91 percent against death from COVID-19.  

The RKI describes a vaccination breakthrough as SARS-CoV-2 infections that are detected in a fully vaccinated person using PCR.

According to the RKI, there is complete vaccination protection if at least two weeks have passed after the vaccination series, which, depending on the vaccine, comprises one or two doses, has passed.

According to the RKI, 66 percent of the population are currently vaccinated at least once, 61.6 percent are fully vaccinated.

In addition, 108,497 people have received a booster vaccination so far.

More young people than older people in intensive care units

According to the RKI, the inadequate vaccination rates among younger adults in the corona pandemic are also reflected in Germany's intensive care units.

Among the people treated there were more 18 to 59-year-olds than people over 60 from mid-August to early September, according to the RKI weekly report. 

Most hospitalizations are currently recorded for this age group.

"The fourth wave affects all age groups, but initially picked up speed due to infections among the young adult population and is increasingly spreading into older age groups," the weekly report continues.

In the intensive care units, the proportion of Covid patients increased again overall.

With almost 1,400 patients, the increase corresponds to 22 percent compared to the previous week, according to the report.

The last time there were highs was around Christmas time with around 5760 intensive care patients.

Seven-day incidence is rising earlier than last fall

"The seven-day incidence has increased significantly since the beginning of July 2021 and is increasing much earlier and faster than last year, when comparable incidences were only reached in October," writes the RKI in its weekly report. According to information from Friday morning, it was 83.8 - the previous day the value was 83.5, a week ago it was 80.2. The health authorities in Germany reported 12,969 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. This is evident from the numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard as of Friday, 3:20 p.m.

According to the new information, 55 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours.

A week ago there were 45 deaths.

The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was given by the RKI on Thursday at 1.89 (previous day 1.79).

A nationwide threshold value from when the situation can be viewed critically is not provided for the incidence of hospitalization, among other things because of large regional differences.

The previous high was around 15.5 around Christmas time.

The RKI stated the number of those who had recovered at 3,810,100.

The number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 92,553.