D.he nationwide seven-day incidence of new corona infections has fallen again. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) this Wednesday morning, the value was 289.0. The day before it was still at 306.4, a week ago at 353.0.
As the RKI further announced, citing data from the health authorities, 45,659 new infections were recorded within 24 hours. A week ago it was 51,301.
The total number of corona deaths in Germany rose by 510 to 109,324.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the health authorities have reported a total of 6,878,709 cases. The institute put the number of people recovered from illness caused by the coronavirus in Germany at around 5,933,400.
The seven-day incidence indicates the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week. The value rose rapidly from the beginning of November. As a result, new highs were recorded every day. The number has been falling again since December. In the government, however, there are great concerns about another wave of infections due to the spread of the much more contagious Omicron variant.
In November, the federal and state governments set the so-called hospitalization incidence as the decisive benchmark for tightening the corona measures. This value indicates how many people per 100,000 inhabitants are in hospital within seven days because of a corona infection.
From a value of three, the 2G rule applies across the board for events in a federal state – that is, only those vaccinated against the coronavirus and those recovered from Covid-19 are allowed. According to the RKI, the nationwide hospitalization incidence on Tuesday was 4.73.
Lauterbach does not rule out a hard lockdown
After the Prime Minister’s Conference on Tuesday, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) defended the resolutions of the Bund-Länder-Round. In an interview with the ARD “Tagesthemen”, he said in the evening: “What we decided today has an immediate effect.” However, he does not rule out “that a hard lockdown will also have to be discussed if the number of cases should develop like this”. There is no red line, just “at this point in time we are not there”.
Lauterbach, according to its own statement, is concentrating on refreshing the vaccinations in curbing the expected wave of infections with the significantly more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus. “I would like that we have boosted most of the population by the end of January,” he said in the “Tagesthemen”. The federal and state governments have now launched a second campaign to “get through” another 30 million vaccinations.
Lauterbach: Not implementing all of the demands
The health minister called on the ARD that only those who have been tested come together at Christmas and that “people behave carefully”. Regarding the demand of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) to introduce contact restrictions immediately, Lauterbach said: “I attach great importance to the scientific advice also from the RKI, we work hand in hand”. But “within the framework of the scientific work of the RKI, there can sometimes be a requirement that we do not implement immediately”.
The federal and state governments agreed on Tuesday to restrict contact even for those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered after Christmas. According to this, an upper limit of ten people for private gatherings will apply nationwide from December 28th. Large events such as Bundesliga soccer games can then only take place without an audience. The Robert Koch Institute had previously advocated immediate “maximum contact restrictions”.
After the federal-state summit, there was, among other things, criticism of the differences between the RKI recommendations and the measures adopted. This involved both the scope and communication of the resolutions.
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