RKI: Sudden increase in the corona incidence, 74 percent delta variant

Corona is spreading again in Germany apparently inexorably - in its delta variant.

Well below 50 percent of people still have full vaccination protection.

Berlin - The seven-day incidence has skyrocketed again.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Thursday morning, it was 8.0 - the previous day the value was 7.1 and before that it was 6.5.

The more contagious Delta variant already accounts for 74 percent of the samples examined, according to an RKI report with a view to the week up to July 4th.

Delta infections in connection with trips to popular holiday destinations such as Spain are also reported.

At the latest low on July 6, there were still 4.9 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days.

Within one day there were 1642 new infections - a week ago there were only 970. According to the new information, 32 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours.

A week ago there were 31 dead.

The reproduction number, which is decisive for the speed of spread of the coronavirus, was 1.18 according to RKI data on Wednesday.

This means that 100 infected people theoretically infect 118 more people.

The value has been above 1 for more than a week - which means increasing case numbers.

In its report on the virus variants, the RKI estimates a significantly higher number of reproductions for Delta: Since the week of June 7th to 13th, this R value for Delta has been 20 to 100 percent higher than for the previous variant.

The delta share had risen in the previous weeks from 18 to 39 and then to 60 percent.

This trend so far suggests that an even larger proportion of cases this week will be caused by Delta.

Because of the relatively complex analyzes, only future reports can provide information about this.

In every tenth Delta case reported from the federal states, there was information about a possible connection with trips abroad, a constant proportion compared to the previous week, as the RKI reports.

Among the three most mentioned countries, it also mentions the popular travel destinations Spain (157 cases) and Portugal (32).

The Delta variant discovered in India is considered to be significantly more contagious than previous forms of the virus.

In several other countries, it has massively increased the number of infections.

According to the RKI, laboratory experiments indicate that those who have been completely vaccinated have a high level of protection against severe disease even with Delta.

For fully vaccinated people, the RKI classifies the risk to health as moderate - for non-vaccinated or incompletely vaccinated people, it is high.

The number of corona vaccinations per week has meanwhile decreased further in Germany.

The total number of weekly vaccine doses administered has decreased since the third week of June, writes the RKI, without giving a specific number for the previous week.

In the previous week (June 28 to July 4) there were 5.0 million corona vaccinations in Germany according to previously published figures, and 5.6 million a week earlier.

A total of 44.6 percent of people in Germany are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

More than 59 percent have at least one vaccination.

According to an RKI survey, the majority of hospital staff had themselves vaccinated against the corona virus in the spring.

(dpa)