The incidence value of new corona infections in Germany has once again reached an all-time high. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported the seven-day incidence on Friday morning at 1073.0. On Thursday, the value had been 1017.4, on Friday last week 706.3. The incidence quantifies the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the period of seven days.

The number of new infections within 24 hours was 190,148 on Friday - up from 203,136 the previous day and 140,160 on Friday last week - according to health department data.The RKI further reported, citing data from health offices, that 170 new coronavirus-related deaths were counted on Friday.There continues to be wide regional variation in seven-day incidence. In Berlin, the incidence stands at 1829.4 (in Berlin Tempelhof-Schöneberg at 3192.2). In Saxony (546.4) and Thuringia (402.2), the incidence values are much lower.

Rising hospital admissions

In November, the federal and state governments defined the so-called hospitalization incidence as the decisive benchmark for tightening the Corona measures. This value indicates how many people per 100,000 inhabitants are hospitalized within seven days due to a Corona infection. According to the latest RKI report on Thursday, the hospitalization incidence nationwide was 4.64. This means that the value recently increased significantly again after several weeks of stagnation.

The president of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), Gernot Marx, told the "Rheinische Post" that, in view of the "very high incidences," he expects that "the general number of patients can and certainly will increase significantly again. Although infection with the Omicron variant is often milder than with the Delta variant, "We are not talking about a cold here," Marx emphasized. "There will be serious courses and also deaths."

In its latest weekly report Thursday, the RKI pointed out that 32 percent of reported corona tests in Germany last week were positive. The previous week, the figure was 24 percent. Due to the "massive" increase in "infection pressure," there have long been concerns that the registered infection figures do not reflect the actual incidence of infection.

The RKI explained: "Even if not every single case is recorded in the reporting system," supplementary indicators allow "a reliable assessment of the overall development. In addition, for the assessment of the situation in the current pandemic situation, "the focus is not on the recording of all infections caused by SARS-CoV-2, but on the development of the number and severity of the illnesses".

Image by Alexandra_Koch