The incidence has been falling significantly throughout Germany for days. The RKI also speaks of a “certain relaxation” in the number of cases. However, it remains to be seen whether the effect may only be temporary.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the corona numbers in Germany are showing a decreasing trend – but further developments still have to be awaited. “There are signs of a certain relaxation in the number of cases of Covid-19,” writes the RKI in its weekly report. This mostly relates to the past week and includes numerous other indicators in addition to the seven-day incidence.
It remains to be seen whether this is only a temporary decline, which is also associated with the autumn holidays in many federal states, or whether it will continue, as the RKI writes. School holidays influenced both contact and testing behavior.
The nationwide seven-day incidence recently fell to 493. The day before, the value that reflects the number of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week was 528. A week ago it was even 661. However, this information only provides a very incomplete picture of the number of infections. Experts have been assuming for some time that there will be a large number of cases not 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 infection pressure is now high in all age groups of the general population in autumn,” the RKI states. In the case of acute respiratory infections overall, high numbers of cases are to be expected in the coming weeks. In particular, the positive rate and the number of illnesses caused by flu (influenza) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) showed an increasing trend.
There are signs of some movement in the virus variants detected in random samples: The proportion of certain new derivatives of the omicron subline BA.5, which has been dominant for months, is currently also increasing in Germany, writes the RKI. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently created a new category with “Omicron subvariants under monitoring”. According to the RKI, their spread and the consequences in terms of transmissibility and disease burden are being closely monitored. It is about pathogens such as BF.7, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1.