The corona virus seems to be on the rise again: the seven-day incidence in Germany has recently increased massively. It is now more than 400 nationwide. The current picture is likely to be incomplete.
The number of officially recorded new corona infections in Germany has recently risen sharply. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) last gave the nationwide seven-day incidence at around 410. A week ago there were 281 reported new cases per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days. A month ago, the incidence was around 243.
According to this data, the seven-day incidence has increased by 46 percent in one week. Whether this is already the beginning of a new wave can only be said with certainty in retrospect. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach and RKI President Lothar Wieler want to comment on the situation on Friday.
In general, the officially reported case numbers only provide a very incomplete picture. On the one hand, because the severity of the disease and the burden on the clinics are also important for assessing the situation. The RKI wanted to provide information on this in its weekly situation report in the evening. On the other hand, the basis for calculating the incidence is laboratory tests, which are now being carried out less frequently than in previous phases of the pandemic. By far not all infected people still have PCR tests done, but these only count in the statistics. In addition, late registrations or transmission problems can lead to a distortion of individual daily values.
There are still clear regional differences in the reported new infections. According to the RKI, the highest seven-day incidences are currently in Saarland with 628 and Bavaria with 503 - the lowest numbers are in Hamburg with 164 and Berlin with 243. The health authorities in Germany recently reported 78,863 new infections to the RKI (previous week: 56,978) and 94 deaths (previous week: 106) within one day.
Here, too, comparisons of the data are only possible to a limited extent due to the test behavior, late registrations or transmission problems. The RKI has counted 33,216,006 proven infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections go undetected.
