Corona case numbers in Germany: Incidence is falling - but the state is tightening the rules again

Created: 12/20/2021, 05:29 AM

From: Jonas Raab, Jennifer Lanzinger

Health Minister Lauterbach fears a massive fifth corona wave.

The first federal states tighten the rules again.

All information in the news ticker.

• The Corona * incidence in Germany drops again on Saturday

  (see update from December 18, 8:19 a.m.)

  .

• The corona test laboratories in Germany are “working at the limit”

  (see update from December 17th, 10:20 pm)

  .

• Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) warns of a massive fifth wave and calls again for boosters

  (see update from December 17, 1:11 p.m.).

• This news ticker has ended.

  The continuation from December 19th can be found here.

Update from December 19, 7:30 a.m.:

The nationwide seven-day incidence of new corona infections has fallen again.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Sunday morning, the value was 315.4.

The day before it was still at 321.8, a week ago at 390.9.

As the RKI further announced, citing data from the health authorities, 29,348 new infections were recorded within 24 hours.

The total number of corona deaths in Germany rose by 180 to 108,233.

On November 18, the federal and state governments set the so-called hospitalization incidence as the decisive benchmark for tightening the corona measures.

This value indicates how many people per 100,000 inhabitants are in hospital within seven days because of a corona infection.

From a value of three, the 2G rule applies across the board for events in a federal state - that is, only those vaccinated against the coronavirus and those recovered from Covid-19 are allowed.

According to the RKI, the nationwide hospitalization incidence on Friday was 5.10.

Update from December 18, 8:40 p.m.:

The Lower Saxony government has agreed on an FFP2 mask requirement in retail.

The new regulation is expected to be adopted on Monday and come into force on Tuesday.

The measure is a reaction to the 2G rule overturned by the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) Lüneburg, which was originally intended to be introduced.

Corona in Germany: Incidence and vaccination rates are falling

Update from December 18, 10:03 a.m.:

Not only is the corona incidence falling, a second important parameter in the

fight against

pandemics is also falling for the first time in weeks - but that's not positive news: As

reports, the average daily vaccination rate fell for the first time since November 1st again.

The value fell on Friday (December 17th) to 1,019,226 cans per day (previous day: 1,030,419).

The reason for the rapid increase in vaccination performance was the booster campaign.

But even with the third vaccinations, the average fell again for the first time since November 1st.

Current corona numbers in Germany: Incidence drops again on Saturday

Update from December 18, 8:19 a.m.:

At the

the weekend, the nationwide seven-day incidence fell again.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Saturday morning (December 18), the value of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants within one week was 321.8.

On Friday it was still at 331.8, a week ago at 402.9.

As the RKI further reported, citing data from the health authorities, 42,813 new infections were recorded within 24 hours.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the health authorities have reported a total of 6,764,188 cases.

The institute put the number of people recovered from illness caused by the coronavirus in Germany at around 5,724,100.

The total number of corona deaths in Germany rose by 414 to 108,053.

Lauterbach expects a "massive fifth wave" - ​​Corona test laboratories are reaching their limits

Update from December 17, 10:20 p.m.:

The situation in Germany's corona test laboratories came to a head at the end of the year: The demand for PCR test analyzes is higher than last year.

"We are working to the limit," said the spokesman for the Bioscientia laboratory network, Hendrik Borucki, on Friday of the dpa.

In almost all cases, however, they still manage to deliver the results within 48 hours.

With around 20 locations throughout Germany, Bioscientia is one of the leading European laboratory companies.

The laboratories in Ingelheim and Mainz currently process more than 6,500 PCR tests per day.

Employees in Saarbrücken manage an average of 3,000 evaluations, the location in Gießen comes up with around 1,800 analyzes per day.

Of these, around 25 percent of the results across all regions are currently positive, according to Borucki.

Corona in Germany: Omikron cases tripled in NRW - first case in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

Update from December 17, 8:55 p.m.:

Omikron has been detected for the first time in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The Ministry of Health announced on Friday that two adults in a household from the Rostock region were infected with the new variant. Both are double vaccinated and largely symptom-free. You have been in strict home quarantine since the first diagnosis.

Update from December 17, 5:25 p.m.:

Within a few days, the Ministry of Health of North Rhine-Westphalia reported a tripling of infections with Omikron.

According to a report by the

, the ministry registered 607 new Omikron cases on Friday.

According to the information, these are PCR tests with references to the variant and / or sequenced samples.

On Monday (December 13th) only 203 Omikron cases were recorded, on the Wednesday of the previous week (December 8th) only 23 cases.

Corona in Germany: Again more than 1 million vaccinations

Update from December 17, 3:25 p.m.:

The corona vaccinations in Germany have exceeded the one million mark for the third day in a row.

A total of 1.24 million cans were injected on Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported on Friday.

The number for Wednesday was now slightly higher than originally stated at 1.557 million vaccinations.

This is a new daily record in the course of the pandemic so far.

At least 58.3 million people or 70.1 percent of the population now have full basic protection with the second corona vaccination, which is usually necessary.

At least 24.1 million people or 29.0 percent of all residents have now received an additional booster vaccination to refresh them.

Corona in Germany: Sales ban on fireworks before New Year's Eve

Update from December 17, 1:53 p.m.:

New Year's Eve in 2021 will have to be celebrated by private individuals without large fireworks. The Federal Council decided on Friday to ban the sale of fireworks in the days before New Year's Eve. As a justification, the constitutional body referred to an additional burden on hospitals due to the improper use of fireworks. The ban is intended to relieve the hospitals, which are already heavily used by the corona pandemic, on New Year's Eve. Such a ban was in place last year.

In addition, the Federal Council decided to extend the multi-billion Corona aid fund for larger companies.

The Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) was limited to the end of 2021 and will now run until June 30, 2022. The Bundestag only decided on Thursday.

The fund, which was set up shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic in spring 2020, is intended to stabilize companies that run into liquidity bottlenecks and whose continued existence would have "significant effects" on the economy and the labor market.

Coronavirus: Lauterbach expects a "massive fifth wave"

Update from December 17, 1:11 p.m.:

Federal Health

Karl Lauterbach (SPD) expects a strong fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic due to the spreading omicron variant. "I am assuming a massive fifth wave," said Lauterbach on Friday in Hanover. According to his own statements, the 58-year-old does not expect that the Omikron variant will be able to stop the developments and therefore warns of the consequences. "We have to assume that the wave of omicrons we are facing, which we cannot prevent from my point of view, will be a massive challenge for our hospitals, for our intensive care units, but also for society as a whole," he said SPD politician. "We have to prepare for a challenge that we haven't had before."

Coronavirus: Lauterbach warns of fifth wave - Germany at the "key point of the pandemic"

The health minister is also not positive about the possibility that the omicron variant causes weaker disease progression.

“Even a somewhat milder course would not make a difference,” Lauterbach explains his prognosis and rejects scenarios that have taken this assumption as a basis and thus viewed a contamination of society as an option.

Even if the first observations were confirmed and patients who were infected with the Omikron variant developed a less severe course of the disease, the hospitals would still come to their limits.

This is due to the sheer speed with which the Omikron variant could search the population in Germany.

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) expects a massive fifth wave in the corona pandemic.

© Ronny HARTMANN / AFP)

“It might keep the number of deaths down for two or three weeks.

But then the growth in the number of cases would have already consumed this advantage, ”explains the Minister of Health.

Lauterbach stated that Germany had reached a "key point in the pandemic" in the current situation and was increasingly promoting the federal government's booster campaign.

With a view to the Christmas holidays, the 58-year-old calls out the maxim “we protect one another” and advises that all relatives be tested several times before a family get-together at Christmas.

Corona virus in Germany: Baden-Württemberg wants to tighten rules

Update from December 17th, 12 noon:

In Baden-Württemberg, stricter corona rules are to apply from the coming week. The regulation will be sharpened, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Social Affairs on Friday. Details, including stricter contact restrictions, especially for the unvaccinated, but also for people with vaccination protection or a recently recovered corona disease are planned and should be published by Friday evening.

With the stricter requirements, the state is implementing a resolution of the federal-state conference, as the ministry spokesman said.

The new regulations will come into force next Monday (December 20th).

The next Corona regulation is eagerly awaited, especially with a view to the upcoming Christmas celebrations in the families.

A household is currently only allowed to meet with one other person.

Excluded from the number are those who have recovered and have been vaccinated, children and adolescents up to and including 17 years of age and people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons or for whom there is no general vaccination recommendation.

Corona incidence falls again: Are the measures now being relaxed?

RKI boss with a gloomy scenario

Update from December 17th, 11.30 a.m.:

The corona pandemic has been determining the lives of millions of people, in Germany and around the world, for almost two years. RKI boss Lothar Wieler is an important expert in the pandemic. In regular press conferences together with Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn and now with Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, Wieler provides information about the infection situation in Germany. While the RKI had recently warned about the fourth wave, Wieler is now expressing his concerns about a fifth wave.

As the RKI boss explains to

, it is likely that the fifth corona wave could be triggered by the new Omikron corona variant.

The AHA rules, compliance with the measures and vaccination make it possible to keep the fifth wave in check.

"However, I am concerned that the measures will be relaxed again because of the decline in numbers," Wieler told

.

Corona incidence is falling again - but RKI reports hundreds of deaths

Original message from December 17, 2021

: Berlin - The corona virus continues to spread in Germany, but current figures continue to give hope.

The Robert Koch Institute reports a decrease in the Corona * values ​​again, and the seven-day incidence is also falling again.

Nevertheless, the RKI reports hundreds of deaths again.

Corona incidence is falling again - but RKI reports hundreds of deaths

As is clear from the current figures from Friday, December 17, 2021, the seven-day incidence is falling again. The RKI gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week at 331.8. For comparison: the previous day the value was 340.1. A week ago the nationwide incidence was 413.7 (previous month: 319.5). The number of new infections also drops again compared to the previous week. The health authorities in Germany reported 50,968 new cases to the RKI within one day. Exactly one week ago there were 61,288 infections.

According to the new information, 437 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours.

A week ago, the reported number was at a similar level, with the RKI recording 484 deaths exactly seven days ago.

The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was given by the RKI on Thursday at 5.17 (Wednesday 5.27).

Omikron is also spreading in Germany.

38 employees of a company in North Rhine-Westphalia are suspected of being infected with the Omikron variant.