The nationwide seven-day incidence of new corona infections has risen again to over 700.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the value on Thursday morning as 720.6.

It was 688.3 the day before and 1015.7 a week ago.

The seven-day incidence quantifies the number of new infections registered per 100,000 inhabitants during this period.

The index values, which had fallen sharply in the past few days, were put into perspective by a note from the RKI.

The institute pointed out that because of the Easter holidays and vacations, fewer tests are being carried out and fewer cases of infection are being recorded and transmitted than at other times.

This means that "in the short term there may be an increased under-recording of cases in the reporting system".

324 dead within 24 hours

As the RKI further announced on Thursday, citing data from the health authorities, the number of new infections reported within 24 hours was 186,325, after 198,583 the day before and 165,368 a week ago.

The total number of recorded cases of infection in Germany since the beginning of the corona pandemic has increased to 23,844,536.

According to the RKI, 324 other deaths related to the corona virus were also registered within 24 hours.

The total number of corona deaths recorded in Germany rose to 133,632.

Much more infections than reported

The medical officers assume that the number of new corona infections in Germany is twice as high as officially reported.

“We expect an unreported number times two in terms of the reported corona cases,” said the chairman of the Federal Association of Physicians in the Public Health Service, Johannes Nießen, the editorial network Germany (RND/Thursday).

"We don't know the exact number, but after two years of the pandemic we can roughly estimate how the number of unreported cases will develop."

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) made a similar statement at the end of March.

He expects the number of actual new infections to be more than twice as high as known.

Experts attribute the high number of unreported cases to the fact that many health authorities are overloaded and by no means all infected people have a PCR test done.

Only these count in the statistics.

Dealing with Corona is becoming more relaxed

Nießen also pointed out that not all positive rapid tests were checked with a PCR test.

“In addition, we are observing a more relaxed handling of Corona, not everyone with cold symptoms can be tested for Corona, vaccinated people are hardly ever tested and 3G only applies in a few areas.

This causes the dark field to become larger,” he said.

Union faction vice Sepp Müller brought up a changed reporting strategy for new infections.

"In my opinion, one status quo report per week during the summer would be sufficient," Müller told RND.

“For two years, the health authorities have been beyond the limit of what they can do.

The Bundeswehr is no longer extending its official assistance, which I can understand.” A weekly report during the summer would relieve the offices.

It is already the case today that individual federal states do not report data every weekday, and at weekends, for example, Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony, Brandenburg and Saxony do not, or only partially, report data.

This in turn leads to late registrations on the following days.

A comparison of daily values ​​is therefore becoming increasingly difficult.