Pandemic in Germany: Slight increase in incidence and new infections

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has reported an increase in the nationwide seven-day incidence and thus a new record.

The RKI gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Tuesday morning as 1441.0.

For comparison: the previous day the value was 1426.0, a week ago it was 1206.2 (previous month: 335.9).

The health authorities in Germany reported 169,571 new corona infections to the RKI within one day.

This represents an increase of 4.3 percent compared to last week.

However, the figures are only of limited significance.

Experts assume a high number of cases that are not recorded in the RKI data.

Test capacities and health authorities are at the limit in many places, contacts are only traced to a limited extent.

In addition, the planned prioritization of PCR tests is likely to increase the number of people who no longer have their infection confirmed by a PCR test - which is therefore not included in the official statistics.

Hospital admissions are falling slightly

According to the new information, 177 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours.

A week ago there were 188 deaths.

The RKI has counted 11,287,428 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 go undetected.

The number of corona-infected patients who came to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was 5.41 according to the RKI on Monday (Sunday: 5.63).

These may also include people with a positive corona test who have another main illness.

The RKI gave the number of recovered people on Tuesday as 8,257,400.

The number of people who died from or involved a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 118,943.

Meanwhile, the FDP chairman Christian Lindner has reiterated criticism from his party of the Robert Koch Institute's decision to shorten the convalescent status and increased the pressure on RKI President Lothar Wieler.

He had "great doubts" about this decision - which was as unannounced as it was surprising, said Lindner on Monday evening on the program "RTL Direkt": "The technical and communication decision was in the hands of Mr. Wieler and I think you can say that it was extremely unfortunate.” But it was up to Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) to express his confidence, Lindner emphasized.

He referred to the fact that the RKI had unexpectedly shortened the recovered status from six to three months with effect from January 15.

Many citizens lost their right to go to restaurants, bars or gyms almost overnight.

A new regulation stipulates that the RKI sets the deadline – but the timing came as a surprise.

Before Lindner, the designated FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai had personally criticized the actions of the RKI and its boss in the "Spiegel". Deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann then explained that Wieler "still had the full trust of the federal government".

This Tuesday, Wieler and Lauterbach, together with the molecular biologist Rolf Apweiler, will provide information about the corona situation in Germany.

Meanwhile, the Bavarian state government wants to decide on new corona loosening.

After the easing already announced by Prime Minister Markus Söder, the Bavarian cabinet now has to make the relevant decisions this Tuesday.

According to the CSU boss, the current curfew of 10 p.m. in the catering trade should fall in the Free State.

In restaurants, guests can sit longer again.

In addition, a spectator capacity utilization of up to 50 percent should again be allowed at sporting events – in stadiums and at major sporting events the limit is currently 25 percent.

Body-related services such as hairdressers or nail salons should also be possible again in Bavaria for visitors with a negative corona test.

The 3-G rule should apply here again.

This means that people who have not been vaccinated or who have no proof of recovery can use the services again.

The 2-G rule still applies here.

With the easing, Bavaria is going beyond the previous agreements between the federal and state governments.

When asked on Monday, Söder justified this with the relatively low utilization of the clinics – despite record incidences – and here in particular the intensive care units with Covid patients.