Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) – In the corona pandemic, the seven-day incidence in North Rhine-Westphalia is 272.5 according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). This emerges from figures from the RKI dashboard from Wednesday morning (3:12 a.m.). A week ago, the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants was 213.6 within seven days. Four weeks ago, the code number for NRW was given as 486.6.

However, the incidence does not provide a complete picture of the infection situation. Experts have been assuming for some time that there will be a large number of cases that have not been recorded by the RKI – mainly because not all infected people have a PCR test done. Only positive PCR tests count in the statistics. In addition, late registrations or transmission problems can lead to a distortion of individual daily values.

The health authorities in NRW recently reported 18,607 new corona infections and 14 deaths within one day. The RKI counted 5,344,803 infections with Sars-CoV-2 in the most populous federal state since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections go undetected.