The nationwide seven-day incidence of the coronavirus has fallen again compared to the previous day.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on this Friday morning at 331.8.

For comparison: the previous day the value was 340.1.

A week ago the nationwide incidence was 413.7, a month ago it was 319.5.

The health authorities reported 50,968 new corona infections to the RKI within one day.

Exactly one week ago there were 61,288 infections.

437 deaths

According to the new information, 437 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours.

A week ago there were 484 deaths.

The number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 107,639.

The RKI has counted 6,721,375 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic.

The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections are not recognized.

The RKI stated the number of those who had recovered at 5,679,400.

The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was given by the RKI on Thursday at 5.17 (Wednesday 5.27).

RKI has not given the all-clear

Despite the slight decrease, according to the RKI, the number of new infections is not falling sharply or quickly enough in view of the high level of stress in the intensive care units and the impending wave of Omikron.

The institute wrote this in its weekly report on Thursday.

For this reason, all measures - such as reducing contacts, wearing masks or complying with hygiene rules - would have to be maintained or even intensified.

The seven-day incidence has decreased in all age groups compared to the previous week.

Only among 0 to 4 year olds does it stagnate.

The highest seven-day incidences are still recorded in the younger age groups: it was 905 for 10 to 14-year-olds and 888 for 5 to 9-year-olds. However, schoolchildren are also tested particularly frequently.

Hospitalization rate remains high

The burden on hospitals and intensive care units also remains high.

Most of the hospital admissions are in the age groups over 60 years.

According to the RKI, calculations indicate that the hospitalization rate is stabilizing at a high level.

4805 Covid-19 patients are currently (as of December 15) being treated in an intensive care unit.

According to the RKI, at least 102 have been relocated across federal state borders according to the so-called clover leaf concept.

Focus on omicron

The RKI registered an increase in the number of detected infections with the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

By December 14th, 112 cases of the worrying variant have been detected via genome sequencing.

In 213 other cases there is suspicion based on a specific PCR test.

There are already first outbreaks.

By December 7th, there had been 28 known infections with the Omikron variant.

In relation to the total number of infections, however, the variant hardly plays a role in Germany: practically all infections are currently still caused by the delta variant, writes the RKI.

For 237 Omicron infections there is information on the symptoms.

The infections were therefore mostly without or with mild symptoms such as runny nose, cough and sore throat.

Deaths have not yet been recorded.

In order to relieve the hospitals before the expected wave of Omikron, a rapid increase in the vaccination rate is urgently required in addition to the intensification of contact-restricting measures, the RKI report continues.

24 percent of the 18 to 59 year olds and 12 percent of the over 60 year olds are still unvaccinated.

The pace of vaccinations had recently increased significantly.

In the past week, according to the RKI, there was a maximum number of vaccinations with over 6.6 million vaccinations.

This week there was on Wednesday almost 1.5 million vaccinations, a daily record since the start of the vaccination campaign.

The majority of these were booster vaccinations (nearly 1.3 million).