After the above-average number of respiratory diseases a few weeks ago, people in Germany seem to be struggling less with it again.
The estimated rate of acute respiratory diseases fell further in the first week of 2023 compared to the previous week, according to the weekly report of the Influenza Working Group of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Wednesday evening.
The value, which is based on citizen information, has therefore fallen back to a range like in years before the pandemic at this time.
"The nationwide school holidays over the public holidays and even after the turn of the year may have contributed to a significant reduction in transmissions, especially among schoolchildren," it said.
The experts write that the further development of the flu wave in Germany can only be better assessed in the coming weeks.
The reason given is the school holidays in many federal states in the past week.
For the first week of the year, almost 13,800 cases of flu confirmed in the laboratory were reported to the RKI.
“The number of cases has fallen compared to the previous weeks.” The number of flu-related deaths reported to the RKI since the beginning of the season was 407.
The registration figures are only a part of the entire event.
Before Christmas, the tense situation in the health system had caused concern.
In view of the high number of infections, many clinics and medical practices were overloaded, and some operations that could be planned were cancelled.