Corona pandemic: Incidence drops slightly for the second day in a row

Status: 01.12.2021 07:05 a.m.

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After a week-long increase, the incidence in Germany fell for the second day in a row: It is now 442.9. Meanwhile, experts are skeptical about Olaf Scholz’s vaccination target by Christmas.

For the second time in a row, the seven-day incidence in Germany has fallen: According to the Robert Koch Institute, the value on Wednesday was 442.9. On Monday a high of 452.4 was reached, on Tuesday the incidence was slightly below 452.2.

As the RKI also announced, citing data from the health authorities, 67,186 new infections were recorded within 24 hours. A week ago there were 66,884 new infections. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths rose 446 to 101,790. The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was given by the RKI on Tuesday as 5.73 (Monday: with 5.52). The value plays an essential role in assessing the occurrence of the infection.

Wieler: The extent of the fourth wave can be seen in spring

Even if the infection values ​​have recently reached new highs: According to RKI boss Lothar Wieler, the real extent of the fourth wave should only become clear in a few months. “We will only see in the spring how bad this fourth wave really turned out,” said Wieler of the dpa news agency. For example, blood donation examinations or population-representative samples will show how high the proportion of people is who have already developed antibodies against corona – be it through vaccination or infection. In this way, among other things, the extent of undetected cases can be better assessed.

At the end of 2020, when vaccination had not yet started, only about two percent of the population had the corresponding antibodies, said Wieler. Much has been achieved with the now large number of vaccinated people in the population. However, new variants or changes to existing variants could strongly influence the further course. The global success of measures is important “because we are just seeing again that containment measures can only buy us some time”. Preventing the spread of new or changed variants is extremely difficult.

In view of the still existing vaccination gap in Germany, the course of next winter also depends on what is done now. “If a lot of people still don’t have basic immunity, we could have another big wave next winter.” The best thing would be if everyone got vaccinated that can be vaccinated, said the RKI boss. “Then we still have this virus in our country, but the proportion of people who are seriously ill next winter would be much lower.”

Experts consider 30 million vaccination target to be ambitious

Experts consider the 30 million additional vaccinations targeted by future Chancellor Olaf Scholz by Christmas to be a very ambitious goal. “This is logistically difficult to implement, since around 1.5 million vaccinations would have to be administered a day,” said Thomas Schulz, head of the Institute for Virology at the Hannover Medical School, the editorial network in Germany. For comparison: According to the RKI, around 532,000 vaccine doses were administered in Germany on Monday, 422,000 of which were booster vaccinations. The record day was June 9th with a total of 1.4 million cans.

The epidemiologist Hajo Zeeb, head of the Prevention and Evaluation Department at the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen, told the RND that he had doubts about the implementation of the goal because of a possible lack of vaccines, “but even a narrow failure would be something.” . A new crisis team headed by the Bundeswehr General Carsten Breuer is to help implement the 30 million goal.

Scholz and the managing Chancellor Angela Merkel reached an agreement with the heads of government of the federal states on Tuesday that new measures against the high number of corona cases in large parts of Germany should be decided in the coming days. Accordingly, contact restrictions for unvaccinated people, stricter requirements at major events and 2G for other areas such as retail are planned. A general compulsory vaccination should also be initiated.