There was a time when a score of 100 meant nothing good.

When the federal and state governments decided on the Corona emergency brake almost a year ago, a seven-day incidence of 100 cases or more marked the beginning of a local lockdown - people then had to reduce their contacts, close shops, and tourists were no longer given hotel rooms.

This magnitude is no longer valid.

Kim Bjorn Becker

Editor in Politics.

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In the meantime, the nationwide incidence is many times higher, the value rose to 1439 on Friday, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). After all, a good three quarters of the citizens are now vaccinated against the virus and instead of the Delta variant that was emerging at the time, there is now proposes Omicron, which some consider less dangerous.

Is everything okay with that?

Not at all, as Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) emphasized in Berlin on Friday.

The fact that Omicron is milder than Delta is "only partially true," he says.

According to official figures, between 200 and 250 people die every day in connection with a corona infection.

And because the incidence continues to rise, the minister warns that it could soon be even more.

"We cannot be satisfied with such a situation." Above all, the pandemic is currently far more serious than people generally realize.

"The situation is much worse than the mood," says Lauterbach.

Even those who have been vaccinated can become seriously ill with omicron.

"The situation is not good, we have to react."

Wieler: People's behavior is changing

The RKI summarized exactly where the country is right now in its latest weekly report on Thursday evening.

There is still a “very high infection pressure” in the population, it says soberly.

In the ninth calendar week, which ran from February 28th to March 6th, more and more people of different age groups became infected.

Compared to the previous week, the incidences rose above average, especially among 20 to 29 year olds, but the dynamics are also high in the group between 50 and 74 years.

The RKI has observed declining incidences above all in the over 90-year-olds and in children - even if the incidence is still highest in them.

For five- to nine-year-olds, the most recent figure was 2,165 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Lothar Wieler, President of the RKI, has two explanations for the fact that the pandemic is getting worse instead of better.

One reason lies in the virus itself, which is changing.

The Omicron subvariant BA.2 is considered more contagious compared to the Omicron parent BA.1.

Within a week, the proportion of BA.2 in the genetically examined samples has risen from 36 to 48 percent - there are no signs that BA.2 could stop displacing BA.1.

A second reason is the recent political decisions of the federal states.

"Protective measures have been relaxed, which is changing people's behavior," says Wieler.

What is meant is the easing at the beginning of March, when a number of countries, for example, reopened clubs and lifted restrictions for the unvaccinated.

In some countries it was even relaxed, although the number of infected hospital and intensive care patients was already increasing - from the point of view of the Federal Government's Corona Expert Council, increasing case numbers in hospitals are important reasons for exclusion for relaxation of any kind. The countries decided to do it anyway and referred partly on their own expertise as justification.