Berlin. In Germany, over two million people have been infected with the virus since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. The health authorities reported 22,368 new corona infections to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) within 24 hours, as the RKI announced on Friday morning.
This means that the number of cases that have become known since the beginning of the pandemic rose to 2,000,958 (as of January 15, 00:00). It should be noted that the actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, since many infections are not recognized.
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1113 deaths in one day
In addition, 1113 new deaths were recorded within 24 hours. The previous high of 1,244 new deaths was reached on Thursday. Among the new infections registered within 24 hours, the highest value was reported on December 18, at 33,777 – but this included 3500 late reports. Basically, the interpretation of the data is currently a bit difficult because around the turn of the year, according to the RKI, corona cases were discovered, recorded and transmitted with a delay.
More than two million corona infections in Germany
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In Germany, over two million people have been infected with the virus since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. © dpa
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The number of new infections reported to the health authorities within seven days per 100,000 inhabitants (seven-day incidence) was 146.1 on Friday morning. Its previous high was reached on December 22nd at 197.6. However, the differences between the federal states are currently enormous: Thuringia has the highest incidences with 287.6 and Saxony with 274.1. Bremen has the lowest value with 78.7.
In the past few days, the number of registered new infections has risen again, according to the RKI situation report on Thursday evening. Whether this trend will continue beyond the expected follow-up tests and late registrations will only be seen in the course of the next few days.
The total number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 44,994. The RKI stated the number of those who had recovered at around 1,641,200.
According to the RKI report on Thursday, the nationwide seven-day R-value was 1.02 (previous day: also 1.02). This means that 100 infected people theoretically infect 102 more people. The value represents the occurrence of the infection 8 to 16 days ago. If it is below 1 for a long time, the infection process subsides.
When assessing the measures, the capacities of intensive care beds, equipment and staff are also important. The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) last recorded 5,125 corona patients who have to be treated in intensive care in 1,281 hospitals in Germany. 57 percent of corona intensive care patients have to be artificially ventilated. In addition, DIVI recorded 22,616 intensive care beds occupied. 4,383 beds are still available.
This must be taken into account when assessing the infection situation
On November 11th, the RKI changed its recommendations for the test criteria. This means that only people with severe, corona-typical symptoms and contact persons of Covid 19 patients should be tested. This could increase the number of unreported coronaviruses because infected people with mild symptoms are no longer recorded.
With the new test strategy, the number of tests carried out increases again. While around 1.3 million tests were carried out in the first week of December, there were around 1.5 million tests in the second week of December.
The positive rate also plays a role in assessing the infection rate in Germany. This key figure indicates how many of the corona tests carried out are actually positive. If the positive rate increases, this is an indication that the infection rate could increase.
Every Wednesday the RKI publishes the newly calculated positive rate in its situation report. The rate has been rising since the beginning of September: While 0.86 percent of the tests were positive in the 37th calendar week (7th to 13th September), it was around nine percent in mid-November. In the 50th calendar week (December 7th to 13th) it was around 11.5 percent.
A positive corona test says nothing about infectivity
If a corona test is positive, it means that those tested have been infected with Sars-CoV-2. However, it does not mean that they are also infectious and can infect others. The level of infection risk depends on the amount of virus.
The virus concentration describes the so-called Ct value. The higher this figure, the lower the virus concentration and the less likely it is that the infected can infect other people. The RKI points out that the Ct value can vary depending on the sampling and test method.
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