Corona incidence in Germany is falling rapidly - but RKI warns against wrong interpretation

Created: 12/26/2021, 09:37 AM

By: Astrid Theil, Julia Volkenand

Corona concerns Germany.

The Federal Office for Disaster Aid is optimistic about reserves.

The vaccination continues.

The news ticker.

• The Omikron variant is on the advance, just in time for the turn of the year, new measures were decided at the Corona summit *.

• Federal Office for Disaster

  Assistance

  : "There are reserves

  " (original report from December 25th, 8.55 am)

• Around 67,000 vaccine doses were administered on Christmas Eve

  (update from December 25, 11:15 a.m.).

• The Association of Towns and Municipalities criticizes the corona strategy of the federal and state governments

  (update from December 25th, 5:06 p.m.).

• This news ticker is continuously updated.

Update from December 26th, 8:50 a.m.:

As the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported early Sunday morning, the nationwide seven-day incidence has continued to decrease.

According to the RKI, 10,100 people have been newly infected with the corona virus in the past 24 hours.

The seven-day incidence (number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within one week) was 220.7 on Sunday morning.

The previous day the value was 242.9 and a week ago it was 315.4.

However, the RKI points out that fewer tests are carried out during the holidays and at the turn of the year and therefore fewer new infections are reported.

Therefore, the officially reported number of cases could only partially reflect the corona situation in Germany.

In addition, 88 deaths were reported across Germany in the last 24 hours.

A week ago there were 180 deaths.

RKI: Incidence continues to fall - but the numbers only reflect reality to a limited extent

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the health authorities have reported a total of 6,991,381 cases.

The number of people recovered from illness caused by the coronavirus in Germany was around 6,113,500.

The total number of corona deaths in Germany is currently 110,364.

The omicron variant of the virus is currently spreading rapidly.

In November, the federal and state governments set the hospitalization incidence (number of hospitalizations per 100,000 inhabitants within one week) as the decisive benchmark for tightening corona measures.

From a value of three, the 2G rule applies across the board for events.

According to the latest figures from Thursday, the hospitalization incidence is 4.55.

Update from December 25, 8:26 p.m

.: Schleswig-Holstein has comparatively low corona numbers.

Why?

For Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) it is because of the mentality.

"We are a different breed of people," he told the dpa.

"Wat mutt, dat mutt.

That is also evident in such a crisis situation. "

Of course, not all residents liked to adhere to the corona rules, the politician restricted.

"It is clear to the people here in the north, however, that such a crisis can only be fought with solidarity and with a sense of community and personal responsibility." This insight is obviously more widespread in his state than in some others. 

Is it because of the “mentality”, as the country manager believes?

The corona numbers are low in Schleswig-Holstein.

© Stefan Ziese / Imago

Wüst is preparing citizens for further corona restrictions for 2022

Update from December 25th, 7:56 p.m

.: NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) encourages citizens to understand further foreseeable corona pollution also in 2022. “In the new year, restrictions in everyday life will remain necessary. Omikron is a whole new dimension of the challenge, "said the head of government of a CDU / FDP coalition of the dpa.

The only way out of the pandemic is through vaccinations.

“The availability of enough vaccine gives us the chance to protect ourselves well”.

Unfortunately, the strategy has not yet worked as originally hoped.

“The low vaccination rate in some parts of Germany has thwarted our plans so far,” stated the MPK chairman.

"I hope that the compulsory vaccination will come quickly and that it will also contribute to social pacification."

Association of cities and municipalities criticizes the federal and state governments' corona strategy

Update from December 25th, 5:06 pm

: "It is still driven far too much on sight": With these words, the head of the Bundestag, Gerd Landsberg, criticized the Corona strategy of politics. "Everyone knows that the new wave of Omikron is coming," he told the newspapers of the Funke media group. That is why long-term planning is indispensable. "The acceptance among the population would also increase if the decision was not always made from one federal-state conference to the next," said Landsberg.

Landsberg asked the Bundestag to re-establish the epidemic situation of national importance.

"Nobody wants a lockdown, but it can quickly become necessary depending on the development of the infection," he said.

"That's why politicians have to keep this option open so that they can react very quickly."

At the same time, Landsberg asked for a possible general vaccination requirement to be prepared *.

This can only work efficiently with a uniform vaccination register.

Other countries had such a system.

In Germany, “the concrete preparations must now begin”.

"It is quick to clarify how such a register could be set up digitally, unbureaucratically and in compliance with data protection regulations."

Federal Office on Endangerment of Critical Infrastructures: There are reserves

Update from December 25, 12:18 p.m

.: According to the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Aid (BBK), a fifth corona wave will not lead to a collapse of critical infrastructures in Germany. "A fifth wave could lead to restrictions, but not to a collapse," said a spokesman for the office of the

. “There is no reason to assume that. There are reserves. We are not at the end of our Latin. "

Anyway, it will probably take until the beginning of the year for Omikron to take full effect in Germany, said the spokesman.

He also praised the preparation for the waves so far.

"We mastered four waves, which were already massive, without restrictions - with the exception of the intensive care units." That is because those responsible are prepared for something like this because corresponding plans existed.

"The companies were also prepared."

The corona numbers in Germany have recently fallen, but experts fear an imminent trend reversal due to the more contagious Omikron variant.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to continue vaccinating over the Christmas holidays and the turn of the year.

Police officers walk through a pedestrian zone in Munich (archive picture).

© Felix Hörhager / dpa

Corona in Germany: 67,000 vaccinations administered in one day

Update from December 25th, 11.15

a.m.: The vaccination rate should remain high over the holidays, the politicians promised.

On December 24th, numerous people in Germany picked up the protective spades against the corona virus.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), around 67,000 vaccinations were administered on Friday, of which 51,000 were so-called booster vaccinations to refresh the vaccination protection

.

The previous vaccination record was achieved on December 15th with a total of 1.6 million doses.

At least 58.9 million people have been vaccinated twice or have received a single vaccination from Johnson & Johnson.

That is 70.8 percent of the total population.

At least 29.9 million people also received a “booster”.

21.7 million people in Germany are currently not vaccinated, which corresponds to 26.2 percent of the population.

No approved vaccine is currently available for four million of these people between the ages of zero and four years (4.8 percent).

On the RKI dashboard, it is pointed out that the vaccination rates are to be understood as minimum vaccination rates, "since 100% coverage cannot be achieved by the reporting system".

The Robert Koch Institute assumes that the actual vaccination rate is up to five percentage points higher.

People stand in line for a vaccination campaign and wait for their vaccination against Covid-19 (archive image).

© Moritz Frankenberg / dpa

Corona: Popular holiday countries are becoming high-risk areas

Update from December 25th, 9:56 a.m

.: In the middle of the winter vacation time, the federal government is changing important rules for popular destination countries.

Ski fans can breathe a sigh of relief: Austria will be removed from the high-risk list again, reports the dpa.

The popular holiday countries Spain and Portugal as well as the USA have been high-risk areas since Saturday (December 25th) due to the high number of corona infections.

The regulation came into effect at midnight.

Finland, Cyprus and Monaco have also been added to the list of high risk areas.

On the other hand, Austria, Belize, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Malaysia were deleted from the list.

Anyone who enters from a high-risk area and is not fully vaccinated or recovered has to be in quarantine for ten days and can only get rid of it with a negative test five days after arrival at the earliest.

The Foreign Office automatically issues a travel warning for high-risk areas.

It makes it easier for tourists to cancel trips that have already been booked free of charge, but does not mean a travel ban.

Medical Association sounds the alarm: health authorities are working to the limit

Original report from December 25th, 8.55 a.m.:

Berlin - The German Medical Association is sounding the alarm as part of the Corona * pandemic.

The reason for concern is that the German health authorities are hardly able to keep up with their work, reports the dpa.

This also leads to gaps in contact tracing, said the federal chairman of the doctors of the public health service, Ute Teichert, the

.

Corona in Germany: health authorities completely overloaded

"At the moment there is almost no comprehensive follow-up any more," says Teichert.

Several countries such as Baden-Württemberg, Berlin and Hamburg have even completely suspended the search for contact persons.

It is assumed there that people inform themselves what to do in the event of a positive test result or risk exposure.

A spokeswoman for the Berlin health administration rejected Teichert's statement.

"The representation that Berlin is one of the federal states in which the health authorities no longer guarantee contact tracking in the context of the corona pandemic is incorrect," she emphasized.

“The Berlin health authorities carry out contact tracking in accordance with the guidelines of the RKI.

The Bundeswehr is also deployed in eight health offices. "

Doctors' Association: Health authorities cannot keep up with tracing contacts

Teichert told the

that the permanently tense situation in the health authorities was also exacerbating the shortage of staff.

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, in addition to fluctuation, I have also seen staff flee from the health authorities," said Teichert.

A comparatively poor pay is also to blame for this.

"There is a significant wage gap that makes working in the health department unattractive."

Green health politician Janosch Dahmen is concerned about the lack of contact tracking, especially with a view to the Omikron variant.

"It can spread rapidly without you noticing it in time," he told the

.

It is important that contact persons are informed and can be tested.

"If we do not notice early on that the actual number of cases is increasing, politicians will not be able to respond appropriately," he warned.