RKI reports decline: cold wave has weakened

Is Germany spending Christmas in bed sick? The worry before the holidays was great.

RKI reports decline: cold wave has weakened

Is Germany spending Christmas in bed sick? The worry before the holidays was great. The RKI reports that the worst fears have not yet come true. However, the number of diseases is still high and RSV in particular remains a problem in children.

The concern about a particularly large number of cases of illness before and on the Christmas holidays did not come true, the number of acute respiratory diseases in Germany fell at the end of 2022. However, the values ​​are still higher than those of previous years, as stated in the weekly report of the RKI’s Influenza Working Group.

The RKI therefore assumes a total of around 6.4 million acute respiratory diseases in the population in the past week - regardless of a doctor's visit. In the week of 12.12. until 18.12. the value was still around 9 million. "Influenza viruses continue to cause the majority of acute respiratory diseases," writes the RKI. The persistent activity of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) also leads to doctor visits and hospital admissions, particularly in children under the age of two.

Before Christmas, the situation in the healthcare system had become increasingly tense. In view of the high number of infections, clinics and medical practices were overloaded, and some operations that could be planned were cancelled. Certain medicines, such as fever juices, were also becoming scarce, but the supply bottlenecks have not yet been resolved.

According to the RKI, the number of doctor visits due to an acute respiratory disease was higher in 2022 than in previous years around Christmas and New Year. Around 1.2 million people visited a doctor between December 26, 2022 and January 1, 2023 for such a disease. In a weekly comparison, however, this number also fell: Two weeks earlier there were still 2.3 million doctor visits. According to the report, the sharp decline was also regularly observed in the pre-pandemic seasons at the end of the year over the holidays. Only when the doctor's offices are open again all the time will it become clear whether the wave of flu and colds is actually dying down.