The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has reported an increase in the nationwide seven-day incidence for the second day in a row.
The RKI gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Friday morning as 1196.4.
For comparison: the day before the value was 1174.1.
A week ago, the nationwide incidence was 1259.5 (previous month: 1349.5).
The health authorities in Germany reported 217,593 new corona infections to the RKI within one day.
This is evident from numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 5 a.m.
A week ago there were 210,743 infections.
Experts assume a high number of cases that are not recorded in the RKI data.
One reason is the limited capacity of health authorities, for example, and contacts are often only tracked to a limited extent.
In addition, according to the ALM laboratory association, there is now a larger number of people whose infection is no longer confirmed by a PCR test - these infections are therefore not included in the official statistics.
According to the new information, 291 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours.
A week ago there were 226 deaths.
The RKI has counted 15,481,890 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 6.36 (Wednesday: 6.14) according to the RKI.
Among them are many people with a positive corona test who have another main illness.
The value is not reported on weekends.
The RKI gave the number of recovered people on Friday as 201,900.
The number of people who died from or involved a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 123,796.
RKI: The peak of the wave among older people has not yet been reached
According to the RKI, infections among seniors are likely to increase further in the omicron wave.
"In this age group, the peak of the wave is still to come," says the institute's Corona weekly report on Thursday evening.
In the past week, there has been a further, albeit weaker, increase in the age groups 65 and over, while the values for the younger have fallen.
In a weekly comparison, more outbreaks in old people’s and nursing homes were reported again.
Overall, the very high infection pressure in the population is only going down very slowly, writes the RKI.
However, the peak of the fifth wave seems to have been passed in the majority of the federal states.
"In Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein, on the other hand, the incidences continued to rise or increased again," it said with a view to the previous week.
The institute renewed its vaccination appeal on Twitter: This protects very well against severe disease, "also the older ones: please vaccinate / have them refreshed."
According to the report, the probably even more easily transferrable omicron sub-variant BA.2 has continued to grow in Germany.
According to the most recent data available, their share was around 38 percent in a sample the week before last, up from around 25 percent the week before.
Since the beginning of the year, the BA.2 proportion has been increasing continuously, while finds of the most widespread omicron subvariant BA.1 have been declining.
The development can also be observed internationally.
"Due to the easier transferability of subline BA.2, a significantly slower decrease or renewed increase in the number of cases cannot be ruled out," writes the RKI.
An important factor for the further course is how much contacts increase as part of the planned easing.
On Thursday, the RKI reported a slight increase in the nationwide seven-day incidence after a long decline.
This could be an outlier, but it could also be an indication of a trend reversal.