The health authorities have reported 698 new deaths in connection with the corona virus to the Robert Koch Institute. The number of new infections is also increasing.
The corona virus in Germany continues to spread rapidly. The health authorities in Germany reported a total of 26,923 new infections on Thursday morning. Compared to the previous week, that is almost 3,000 more infected. The number of daily deaths is 698, the second highest figure since the outbreak of the pandemic. Given the increase in new infections, this increase in deaths was expected.
Seven-day incidence drops only slightly
There is also no all-clear with a view to the seven-day incidence, which indicates how many people per 100,000 inhabitants are infected with the corona virus. This fell slightly to 179.2 – but is still a long way from the politically defined target of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants. The seven-day R-value is 0.98 according to the current data. This means that currently 100 infected people infect 98 more people. For the infection situation to relax, the R value would have to be below one for a longer period of time.
Germany in lockdown
Stricter rules to combat the corona pandemic have been in effect in Germany since Wednesday: Shops are closed – with the exception of supermarkets, drug stores and pharmacies. In some cases, however, other shops are allowed to hand over ordered goods. The pupils learn digitally in the last days before the Christmas holidays. In some federal states, exit restrictions also apply in the evening hours. For now, these rules apply until January 10th.
Criticism from the head of the statutory health insurance physicians
The head of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen, does not believe that the additional restrictions can slow down the rate of infection. “A lockdown, no matter how hard, is not a suitable strategy in combating pandemics,” Gassen told the editorial network Germany. Instead, he called for risk groups to be better protected, for example by offering more public transport or subsidized taxi rides.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Robert Koch Institute has counted 1,406,161 infections, of which 1,047,600 are considered recovered. 24,125 people have died in connection with corona infection.
