The seven-day incidence has risen again and has reached an all-time high. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Monday morning with 452.4. By comparison, the previous day the figure had been 446.7, and a week ago 386.5 (previous month: 64.3).

Health offices in Germany reported 29,364 new Corona infections to the RKI within one day. This is according to figures reflecting the status of the RKI dashboard as of 03:34. Exactly one week ago, there had been 30,643 infections.

Across Germany, 73 deaths were recorded within 24 hours, according to the new data. A week ago, there were 62 deaths. The RKI counted 5,791,060 proven infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic, but the actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections are not detected.

Saxony reported the highest incidence with 1285, ahead of Thuringia (895) and Saxony-Anhalt (698). The lowest values were recorded in Schleswig-Holstein (151.3), Lower Saxony (217), and Bremen (219). 31 of the 401 counties and independent cities in Germany have a seven-day incidence of more than 1000, with the Erzgebirgskreis district having a value of 2073.4.

The number of corona patients admitted to hospitals per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days, the RKI gave Friday with 5.97 (Thursday: 5.79). The value is not reported on weekends. It plays an essential role in assessing the incidence of infection. If the threshold values 3, 6 and 9 are exceeded in the federal states, stricter measures to combat the pandemic can be imposed there in each case.

The RKI on Monday gave the number of those who have recovered as 4,852,800. The number of people who died from or with the involvement of confirmed infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 100,956.

Meanwhile, Saxony's morticians are looking to the future with concern in light of dramatic Corona infection figures. "At the moment, the situation is still relaxed and not at all comparable to the situation last year," Tobias Wenzel, head of the guild of morticians in Saxony, told the German Press Agency. Nevertheless, there could be overloads because of the dynamic development. "When a wave of infections starts, 14 days later they end up in intensive care units. After another two weeks, we start to feel it."

According to Wenzel, every November there is an increase in the number of deaths, which means more cremations than usual. Now, however, there would be an increase in corona deaths. The crematoria are therefore working to capacity. However, the situation is problematic in two respects in particular: firstly, the registry offices are very slow in issuing the necessary documents due to a lack of staff. "Capacities in the crematoria are there. But we cannot act because the burial certificates are not available," Wenzel said. As a result, the cold storage facilities would fill up more and more.

The second problem, he said, concerns the staff of crematoria and funeral homes themselves. As more and more school children are quarantined, parents have to stay at home because there is no emergency care for children of morticians. "That's why a lot of staff is now dropping out," Wenzel said. By the end of 2020, the capacities of the ten crematoria in Saxony were so exhausted that dead bodies had to be taken to other states for cremation. The images of this highlighted the full drama of the pandemic in Saxony. "I would not have thought it possible that the infection figures would be much higher a year later," Wenzel said.

Image by Gerd Altmann