The incidence of new corona infections in Germany has risen sharply again.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the seven-day incidence on Friday morning as 303.4.

The day before it was 285.9, a week ago it was 214.9.

The value quantifies the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants over a period of seven days.

The incidence is again as high as it was last before Christmas.

As the RKI now announced, citing data from the health authorities, 56,335 new infections were recorded within 24 hours.

It was the third day in a row with more than 50,000 new infections.

A week ago it was 41,270.

In addition, 264 new coronavirus-related deaths were counted on Wednesday.

According to the latest information from the RKI, the health authorities have recorded a total of 7,417,995 cases of infection since the start of the pandemic.

The total number of registered corona deaths in Germany rose to 113,632.

The institute put the number of people recovered from illness caused by the coronavirus in Germany at around 6,664,800.

Omicron content at more than forty percent

The RKI has removed the warning that fewer tests and reports were expected during the holidays and at the turn of the year.

It had previously been said that the RKI numbers probably did not provide a complete picture of the infection situation in Germany.

In November, the federal and state governments set the so-called hospitalization incidence as the decisive yardstick for tightening the corona measures.

This value indicates how many people per 100,000 inhabitants are in hospital within seven days because of a corona infection.

According to the latest RKI report from Thursday, the nationwide hospitalization incidence was 3.26.

The proportion of the virus variant Omikron in the infection rate is increasing rapidly.

According to reporting data from the federal states, 44.3 percent of the corona evidence examined for variants was due to Omikron in calendar week 52 (until 2.1.), As the RKI wrote.

A week earlier, the value was given as 15.8 percent.

The count includes both evidence based on genetic analysis and suspected cases based on so-called variant-specific PCR tests.

"Current events in Germany are increasingly determined by the worrying variant Omikron," writes the RKI.

The proportion of the delta variant, which until a few weeks ago almost exclusively dominated the infection process, is steadily decreasing.

Meanwhile, the federal and state governments apparently want to tighten the corona rules at their prime ministerial conference scheduled for today.

According to the draft resolution, access to catering for vaccinated and convalescent people nationwide and independent of the incidence should only be possible with a daily test.

Only those who have been boosted are exempt from the rule.

It is unclear from when the rules will apply.

In the draft agreed between the Chancellery and the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin, January 15 is proposed.

"You often sit for hours without a mask"

Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach said on Thursday evening on the program “RTL Direkt”: “Gastronomy is a problem area. You often sit for hours without a mask. And if the people there infect each other, as we see a lot at Omikron, then we need better protection, hence 2 G plus, i.e. vaccinated and additionally tested. ”Lauterbach did not rule out further contact restrictions for the future .

The draft resolution also appeals to only use safe FFP2 masks when shopping in shops and in local public transport. However, this is not mandatory. The existing contact restrictions are to be extended, the home office obligation to remain. At the same time, the draft stipulates that the federal government and the 16 state governments support the decisions of the health ministers to shorten the isolation and quarantine.



The draft indicates that it is gratifying that Omikron "has not spread as quickly in Germany in the past few weeks as was to be expected based on experience in other countries". In addition, reference is made to the declining occupancy rates in hospitals in large parts of the country. Another 30 million people are expected to be vaccinated by the end of January.



In addition, Germany's largest medical association, the Marburger Bund, has warned of bottlenecks in PCR tests.

"The Omikron variant will also lead to more infections among workers in the laboratories," said chairwoman Susanne Johna of the newspapers of the editorial network Germany (RND).

It is therefore to be expected that the PCR test capacities in Germany will soon only be available “to a limited extent”.

This can already be seen in other countries.