The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) continues to classify the current corona development as "very worrying".

It advises "urgently to cancel or avoid larger events if possible, but also to reduce all other unnecessary contacts".

This emerges from the institute's weekly report on Thursday evening.

"If they cannot be avoided, regardless of the vaccination or convalescence status, you should do a test beforehand and use the Corona warning app."

Vaccinated and convalescent people should also wear masks, keep their distance and regularly ventilate rooms in which there are several people.

In the case of respiratory illnesses such as a runny nose or cough, it is “absolutely necessary” for all people, including those who have been vaccinated, to stay at home, but also to contact a family doctor and have a PCR test done there.

Austria is to become a high-risk area

Despite the sharp rise in the number of infections, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) considers a general vaccination requirement to be unenforceable.

"That would tear our country apart," he told the news magazine Spiegel in an interview published online on Thursday evening.

He was also skeptical about compulsory vaccination for nurses.

He "would be concerned that we could lose a lot of nursing staff with too much pressure," said Spahn.

However, he is in favor of testing the care workers on a daily basis.

In addition, the federal government wants to declare Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary to be high-risk areas.

The classification should be made on Friday and come into force on Sunday, reported the Funke media group on Thursday.

However, individual communities in Austria are to be excluded.

The seven-day incidence in Austria was most recently over 700 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

In Upper Austria the value reached almost 1200. There, a lockdown for unvaccinated people is planned from next week.

Travelers from high-risk areas must be quarantined for ten days.

Vaccinated and convalescent persons can avert the quarantine if they submit proof of convalescence or vaccination to the German authorities prior to their entry.

The quarantine can be shortened in the event of subsequent submission of a recovery or vaccination certificate or a negative test.

Countries or regions are classified as high-risk areas in which a particularly high risk of infection is assumed due to high infection rates.

Around 70 countries are currently wholly or partially on the risk list of the RKI.

This includes several EU countries.

There is also the virus variant area category for areas in which certain coronavirus mutants are particularly widespread.

No states or regions are currently classified here.