RKI numbers today: 6114 new corona infections, 218 deaths in Germany

Last Sunday, the RKI had recorded 8,616 new infections and 231 new deaths within one day. The high of 1,244 newly reported deaths was reached on January 14th. Among the new infections registered within 24 hours, the highest value was reached on December 18 with 33,777 – but it contained 3500 late reports.

Seven-day incidence now well below 60

The number of new infections reported within seven days per 100,000 inhabitants (seven-day incidence) was 57.4 nationwide on Sunday morning, according to the RKI. Four weeks ago, on January 17th, the incidence had been 136. Its previous high was reached on December 22nd at 197.6. Most federal states continue to record falling seven-day incidences, according to the RKI.

R-value further below the critical value of 1

The RKI has counted 2,334,561 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic (as of February 14, 00:00). The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher since many infections are not detected. The RKI stated the number of people recovered to be around 2,119,100. The total number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 64,960.

The nationwide seven-day R-value was, according to the RKI situation report from Saturday evening, at 0.90 (previous day 0.87). This means that 100 infected people infect 90 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 3488 corona patients who have to be treated in intensive care in 1282 hospitals in Germany. 56 percent of corona intensive care patients have to be artificially ventilated. In addition, DIVI recorded 22,058 intensive care beds occupied. 4,758 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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