The autumn holidays seem to have slowed down Corona: In the data up to the past week, the RKI continues to observe a decreasing trend. An omicron subline is on the rise, and it seems to bypass immune protection a little better than its predecessors.
The distribution of the relatively new omicron subline BQ.1.1 in Germany has increased noticeably. The proportion of this pathogen in a sample was over eight percent the week before last, “which corresponds to a quadrupling of the proportion in the last four weeks,” writes the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in its Covid 19 weekly report. BQ.1, on the other hand, stagnated with a share of less than four percent.
BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are descendants of BA.5 – the omicron variant, which has been responsible for the majority of infections in this country for months. According to models from the European disease control agency ECDC, both are likely to cause more than 80 percent of cases at the beginning of 2023. If the delay in the RKI data is taken into account, higher proportions than stated in the report can currently be assumed. Early evidence suggests that these pathogens may evade the immune response of vaccinated and/or recovered people better than their predecessors. So far, however, according to experts, there are no signs that the nickname of BQ.1.1 used in social media – “Cerberus” or “Hellhound” – is program. An increased disease burden has not been observed so far. In France, where BQ.1 is already more widespread than in Germany, the newspaper “L’Indépendant” listed among the observed symptoms, in addition to the usual ones such as malaise, coughing, sore throat and breathing difficulties, severe headaches and cardiac arrhythmias.
“A decreasing trend” continued in the past week, writes the RKI on the development of the reported corona cases in Germany. The evaluations also show that fewer laboratory tests for Sars-CoV-2 were carried out last week than at the beginning of September: around 509,000. In the meantime there had already been more than 900,000 tests per week.
The RKI data on severe illnesses also indicate a current downward trend: the number of hospital treatments for Covid-19 has decreased slightly, it said. Fewer seriously ill people than before were also treated with the virus in the intensive care units in the country. Overall, the institute considers acute respiratory infections to be more difficult to prevent in autumn, since people stayed indoors more often and longer. A high number of such infections can therefore be expected in the next few weeks.