Health offices in Germany reported 21,573 new Corona infections to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) within one day. In addition, 183 new deaths were recorded within 24 hours. That's according to figures released by the RKI on Friday. Exactly a week ago, the RKI had recorded 17,482 new infections and 226 new deaths within one day.

The data reflect the status of the RKI dashboard as of today morning (26th Mar), subsequent changes or additions by the RKI are possible. According to the RKI, the number of new infections reported within seven days per 100,000 inhabitants (seven-day incidence) was 119.1 nationwide on Friday morning - higher than the previous day (113.3). Thuringia recorded the highest seven-day incidence of 221.5, with five states below the 100 level: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (95.3), Lower Saxony (98.1), Rhineland-Palatinate (93.7), Schleswig-Holstein (62.4) and Saarland (61.1). The latter intends to relax the lockdown after Easter.

The peak of 1244 newly reported deaths had been reached on January 14. In terms of new infections registered within 24 hours, the highest value of 33,777 had been reached on December 18 - but it included 3,500 subsequent reports.

The RKI counted 2.73 million confirmed infections with Sars-CoV-2 in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections are not detected. The RKI reported the number of people who recovered to be about 2.46 million. The total number of people who died from or with the involvement of a confirmed infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 75,623.

The nationwide seven-day R-value was 1.08 (previous day 1.00), according to the RKI situation report on Thursday evening. This means that 100 infected people infect 108 other people. The value represents in each case the infection occurrence 8 to 16 days ago. If it is below 1 for a longer period of time, the number of infections is decreasing; if it is continuously above 1, the number of cases is increasing.

A tighter lockdown over the Easter holidays was reversed Wednesday. Merkel called the plan a personal mistake and asked people to forgive her.

Meanwhile, epidemiologists warned of a further increase in the number of cases. RKI President Lothar Wieler said after the cancellation of the tightened lockdown over Easter: "We can't stop this increase unless with a new lockdown for the country."

Photo by Clay Banks