Germany's medical officers assume that the number of corona infections is far higher than officially stated.
The chairman of the Federal Association of Doctors in the Public Health Service (BVÖDG), Johannes Nießen, told the newspapers of the editorial network Germany on Saturday that he estimates the number of unreported corona cases to be about two to three times higher than the official figures.
The official sum results from the reported positive PCR tests minus the deceased.
Increasingly, however, "people are undergoing an antigen test and no longer carry out a PCR test," explained Nießen.
"This leads to an under-recording of the infections." The corona monitoring of wastewater and antibody studies of blood donations give indications of this under-recording.
Seven-day incidence in more than 400
"Only some of those who have a positive rapid test also do a PCR test for confirmation," confirmed the Federal Chairman of the German General Practitioners Association, Ulrich Weigeldt.
"For that reason alone, a high number of unreported cases can be assumed," he told the newspapers.
According to the report, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) only registered 890,000 PCR tests in the week starting July 18.
At peak times in January and March of this year, there were around 2.5 million tests per week.
The RKI is currently recording tens of thousands of corona infections every day.
The seven-day incidence is more than 400.