Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) sees the current wave of infections broken.

"The peak of the omicron wave has passed - pretty much exactly on the day I predicted a month ago," Lauterbach told the "Bild" newspaper on Tuesday.

Therefore, "moderate easing" is now possible, added the minister with a view to the upcoming federal-state talks.

According to Lauterbach, he “fully supports” the proposals for gradual easing that have been made known so far.

"But not more, so as not to risk another increase."

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the nationwide seven-day incidence fell on Tuesday for the third day in a row - although the meaningfulness of the data is still limited.

The RKI gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Tuesday morning at 1437.5.

For comparison: the day before the value was 1459.8.

A week ago, the nationwide incidence was 1441.0 (previous month: 497.1).

“The measures were spot on”

The health authorities in Germany reported 159,217 new corona infections to the RKI within one day.

A week ago there were 169,571 infections.

However, the numbers are only of limited significance at the moment.

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

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

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

According to the new information from the RKI, 243 deaths were recorded within 24 hours across Germany.

A week ago there were 177 deaths.

The RKI has counted 12,580,343 proven 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 5.93 (Friday: 6.46) according to the RKI on Monday.

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 8,989,100.

The number of people who died from or involved a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 120,220.

Health Minister Lauterbach had predicted the peak of the omicron wave a month ago using a model from several scientists for mid-February.

Now you can see how well the model works.

"The measures were right," said Lauterbach, referring to the corona restrictions.

"This enabled us to significantly reduce the number of deaths and, compared to other countries, we came through this omicron wave really well."

With a view to his critics, the SPD politician added: “One should acknowledge: something worked.” The federal and state governments will discuss how to proceed in the corona pandemic on Wednesday.

According to a draft resolution that was announced in advance, gradual easing should be agreed so that all far-reaching containment measures will be lifted on March 20th.

FFP2 mask requirement until early summer?

The considerations for a step-by-step plan with easing of corona requirements have meanwhile met with approval from the medical profession.

Before the next round of federal and state governments, the German Association of Cities called for a legal framework beyond March 20 after the measures regulated in the Infection Protection Act had expired.

As a first step, private meetings for vaccinated and recovered people should be made possible again with more people.

In retail, the 2-G rule should fall nationwide, but the obligation to wear a mask will remain.

The paper is a discussion basis for a draft resolution for the federal-state talks.

The heads of the state chancellery of the federal states discussed the situation on Monday.

The deliberations should continue this Tuesday.