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According to estimates by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), acute respiratory diseases such as Covid-19 are currently affecting more people in Germany than in previous years at the same time.
"The pressure of infection is now increasing significantly again in autumn in all age groups of the general population," says the Covid 19 weekly report on Thursday evening, which also refers in part to other respiratory diseases.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and RKI boss Lothar Wieler want to comment on the corona situation in autumn on Friday in Berlin.
The RKI currently gives the nationwide seven-day incidence as 466.0.
This emerges from figures that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 5 a.m. on Friday morning.
All current figures from the RKI can be found here: Covid dashboard
The day before, the value of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week was 409.9 (previous week: 294.7; previous month: 247.1).
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 by far 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 Germany recently reported 96,367 new corona infections (previous week: 50,800) and 140 deaths (previous week: 93) to the RKI within one day.
Other acute respiratory diseases are also on the rise
In the RKI weekly report, the number of people infected with corona for the past week is estimated at 500,000 to 1.2 million.
Rising values are therefore also recorded for other indicators such as incidence.
In addition to Sars-CoV-2, rhinoviruses are among the predominant viruses that lead to visits to the family doctor, it said.
These pathogens trigger colds.
In the case of severe respiratory diseases - meaning hospital treatment - there has not yet been a significant increase, the RKI notes with a view to the past week.
Because people are more likely to be indoors again in autumn and a further increase in illnesses must be expected, the RKI reminds: "Regular correct ventilation (intermittent ventilation) with high air exchange and low heat loss" is very important to reduce the risk of infection.
The background is that it is easier to get infected indoors than outdoors through droplets that the sick emit when sneezing or coughing.
In general, the RKI warned to continue to comply with the recommendations for avoiding infections in order to protect vulnerable groups.
As in the weeks before, according to a random sample, almost all corona infections in this country can be traced back to the omicron subline BA.5.
According to the RKI, according to the latest data from the week before last, the BA.2.75 subline, which is under observation because of some mutations, has so far only made up a very small proportion: it is less than one percent.
Several scientists have recently expressed the assessment that this variant is unlikely to pose a major risk for autumn and winter - but new ones could still emerge.
"Covid-19 vaccination has reached its lowest point"
Immunologists are of the opinion that there is now good basic immunity in Germany.
This does not necessarily mean permanent protection against corona infection - but in this case the majority of people should have memory cells through vaccinations and/or infection that prevent worse things from happening.
You could have a fever for two or three days or maybe feel really bad, but in the end you could cope very well with the infection, said Christian Bogdan, a member of the Standing Vaccination Committee (Stiko), recently.
"We wouldn't call that a serious infection."
With a virus like Sars-CoV-2, it is not possible to prevent these harmless infections through further vaccinations, emphasized the scientist.
Reducing incidences is also not a vaccination goal: "It's not about us somehow continuing to play this number game of incidences," said Bogdan.
The focus is rather on avoiding serious illness in vulnerable people such as the elderly and those with previous illnesses.
Accordingly, Stiko has so far not recommended second booster vaccinations for the entire population, but for those over 60, for example.
This is currently the only group in which, according to another RKI report on Thursday, there is still a relevant increase in Covid 19 vaccinations.
In fact, the general downward trend continued even after midsummer: “In September 2022, around 636,400 vaccinations in around 24,900 vaccinating centers hit the all-time low of the Covid-19 vaccination process,” says the monthly vaccination report.
The RKI appealed that in long-term care facilities the upcoming flu vaccinations "absolutely" had to be taken as an opportunity to complete the Covid 19 vaccination protection.
ok/dpa
