DThe seven-day incidence of new infections has reached the highest value since the beginning of the corona pandemic. The Robert Koch Institute put the number of confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants per week on Monday morning at 201.1. The previous record value was reached at the peak of the second corona wave on December 22, 2020 with 197.6.
It is important to note that unlike a year ago, many people are now vaccinated. The rate is particularly high among the very old, who are particularly at risk. Experts therefore assume that the healthcare system can now withstand more new infections than before vaccinations, as they protect very well against serious illnesses.
15,513 new infections
The day before the incidence was 191.5, a week ago 154.8, a month ago 63.8. The health authorities reported 15,513 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. On Friday, the number of new infections reached 37,120, a record high since the pandemic began. Weekend numbers are always slightly lower. Exactly one week ago the value was 9658 infections.
The district of Saxon Switzerland-Osterzgebirge has the highest incidence at 924.3 – this means that in the past seven days almost one percent of the residents there have been newly infected with the Sars-Cov-2 virus.
According to the new information, 33 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there had been 23 deaths. The number of people who died from or involved a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 96,558.
The RKI has counted 4,782,546 detected 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. The RKI put the number of people who had recovered at 4,380,000.
It can get tight in the intensive care units
Doctors fear a doubling of corona patients in intensive care units. With almost 2,500 cases, just as many would have to be treated intensively as at the same time a year ago in the second wave, said Christian Karagiannidis, scientific director of the intensive care register of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. The number is expected to almost double in the coming weeks if new infections continue to rise sharply. “With an incidence of 300, we expect around 4,500 Covid patients nationwide with large regional differences,” warned Karagiannidis.
In Bavaria, the hospital traffic light of the Ministry of Health turned red on Monday because of the high number of more than 600 corona patients in the intensive care units. This means that the access and test rules will be tightened from Tuesday. Among other things, according to the Ministry of Health, the 3-G rule will then be mandatory in many workplaces: Only employees who have been vaccinated, recovered or tested will have access.
As the Divi intensive care register showed on Monday, there were currently 609 people with Covid-19 in the intensive care units in Bavaria at noon, more than half of them requiring ventilation. Nationwide, only 446 intensive care beds are free, 155 of which are Covid-specific beds with ventilation options. In order to prevent the health system from collapsing, stricter rules will come into force if more than 450 or 600 Covid beds are occupied with a one-day delay. With 450 occupied Covid beds, the hospital traffic light turned yellow. It was not until Sunday that the switch was made to FFP2 masks everywhere where medical masks had previously been sufficient.
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