The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) considers the peak of the current wave of corona infections in Germany to be “probably reached”, but continues to warn of high infection pressure and therefore continues to assess the risk to the population as “very high”.

This emerges from the most recent weekly report that the RKI published on Thursday evening.

Kim Bjorn Becker

Editor in Politics.

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Although the nationwide seven-day incidence has recently fallen - on Friday morning the value was 1586 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within one week - the number of deaths associated with the omicron variant is, according to the RKI, around 200 per Tag still "significant".

While younger people have recently tended to be less often infected with corona, the incidence among older people has increased - in the group of 70 to 79 year olds by more than five percent within a week.

The so-called hospitalization incidence, i.e. the proportion of patients treated in hospital with a positive corona test result, remains largely constant, as does the number of Covid 19 patients in the intensive care units of hospitals.

"Please keep wearing the mask"

The RKI attributes the numerous new infections to several reasons.

On the one hand, the somewhat more contagious omicron type BA.2 is continuing to spread, and its proportion of all genetically examined samples has recently risen to more than 80 percent.

On the other hand, the RKI sees reasons for the high numbers in the “withdrawal of contact-reducing measures” and in a corresponding change in the behavior of citizens.

Against the background that most corona measures are being phased out in many federal states, the RKI urges caution.

"The further course of the pandemic also depends on whether larger parts of the population continue to behave prudently and considerately even if government-ordered measures are reduced or to what extent possible contacts relevant to infection increase," it says.

According to the new Infection Protection Act, the obligation to wear a mask only applies if the state parliament of a federal state designates an area as a so-called hotspot.

So far, only Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have each declared the entire country a hotspot, Bremen could follow.

The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst (CDU), called on the citizens of his country to voluntarily continue to wear a mask indoors.

This is for security.

The legal hurdles of the hotspot regulation are too high, the federal government is responsible for it.

The opposition SPD appealed to the students in the state: "Please continue to wear the mask."

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) has once again defended the amended Infection Protection Act against criticism.

"The law is strict, but it's not bad," he said on Friday on ARD.

It was "very clear and well-crafted".