According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the fourth wave in the corona pandemic is picking up speed, especially through infections among young adults.

But it is also spreading increasingly in the middle age groups, according to the latest RKI weekly report from Thursday evening.

The seven-day incidence of registered infections among 15 to 34-year-olds on Thursday was 115 per 100,000 inhabitants, almost twice as high as in the general population (66).

Among the 35 to 50-year-olds, it was up to 75. The elderly and very old people with the highest risk of severe Covid-19 courses, on the other hand, are usually already vaccinated.

The incidences no longer rise above 17 cases per 100,000 population from the age of 60.

The positive rate of around 680,500 PCR tests in the 33rd calendar week from mid-August rose significantly: at almost 8 percent (7.88) it was around five times higher than a month ago (1.63 percent).

The proportion of vaccinated people rose only slowly compared to the previous week.

As of August 25, almost 65 percent of German citizens had been vaccinated at least once and almost 60 percent had been completely vaccinated.

A week earlier, these rates were around 64 percent for the first and 58 percent for the second vaccinations.

New criteria

A total of 12,626 new corona infections were reported within 24 hours in Germany.

As the RKI announced on Thursday morning, 21 people died in connection with the virus.

A week ago, 8,400 new cases and 22 deaths were reported.

According to the RKI, the total number of corona infections recorded in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic increased to 3,901,799, and the number of deaths to a total of 92,082. The seven-day incidence is 66, the previous day the value was 61.3. According to the RKI, no data was transmitted from Hamburg for Thursday, so the actual numbers are likely to be even higher.

The previous value of 50 for the seven-day incidence, which is still mentioned in the Infection Protection Act as a threshold for stricter measures, is to be deleted according to plans by the federal government. According to the plans of the Federal Ministry of Health, the regional clinic occupancy with corona patients should in future be the essential yardstick for triggering countermeasures such as everyday restrictions. Head of department Jens Spahn (CDU) told the editorial network Germany: “Then the countries have to decide. They also keep an eye on all the other pandemic criteria and can thus best assess the situation in their region. "

Specifically, according to a formulation proposal by the ministry for the coalition factions, the "hospitalization incidence" should be used - i.e. the number of corona patients admitted for treatment per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days.

The threshold from which countermeasures take effect should be “set taking into account the regional inpatient care capacities with the aim of avoiding an impending overload of the regional inpatient care.” The infection dynamics and the number of vaccinated people could also be included.

Doctors: Include several factors

The background to this is that the number of new infections (incidence) previously used as the main indicator no longer has such a direct impact on the hospital burden in view of the progress made in vaccination. Spahn told the RND: “The incidence has had its day. In order to assess the pandemic situation, the hospitalization rate is much more informative. ”It shows whether the pandemic will still be dangerous despite the high vaccination rate.