RKI reports record incidence again – police discover “weapon ready to fire” at corona demonstration

Created: 01/18/2022 06:56

By: Jennifer Lanzinger

Participants in a demonstration against the Corona measures known as a “walk” walk through the city center at the weekend.

(Archive image) © Bodo Schackow/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

The corona numbers continue to rise, and the RKI reports a new maximum incidence value.

The incidence is now jumping nationwide over a mark of 550. The news ticker.

• The RKI once again reports a new absolute corona high value.

• Thousands of Corona * demonstrators took to the streets on Monday.

• This news ticker is continuously updated.

Berlin – The corona numbers are rising sharply again, and the Robert Koch Institute is again reporting a new high in the corona pandemic.

The institute had already reported record incidences in the past few days.

Now the value even jumps over the mark of 550 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week.

Corona numbers are climbing higher and higher: RKI reports record incidence again - more than 70,000 new cases

With an incidence of 553.2, the RKI recorded another record value.

The day before, the incidence had set a record at 528.2.

A week ago the value was 387.9 (previous month: 306.4).

And the number of new infections is also increasing sharply compared to the previous week.

The health authorities in Germany reported 74,405 new infections to the RKI in the past 24 hours.

A week ago the value was 45,690 infections.

According to the new information, 193 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours.

A week ago there were 322 deaths.

Thousands of participants in demonstrations against corona measures

Numerous measures are intended to curb the spread of the corona pandemic in Germany. Thousands of people are not enthusiastic about the policy, however, they took to the streets on Monday evening. According to police reports, the protests, which were often described as “walks”, were mostly peaceful. In isolated cases, the police intervened to prevent clashes with counter-demonstrators. The police also broke up gatherings that violated demonstration and corona requirements. There were arrests and injuries.

In Rostock, around 3,000 opponents of the measures faced around 1,000 police officers.

When officers tried to stop a demonstrator elevator, some threw bottles and firecrackers at the officers.

The officers used pepper spray and arrested eleven people.

During searches, they found home-made pyrotechnics and a “shooting pen” along with ammunition.

"The presence of a ready-to-fire weapon and ammunition is an extremely dangerous and worrying development," said Rostock Police Inspectorate Achim Segebarth.

More than 21,000 demonstrators in Thuringia - infection protection rules often disregarded

In Thuringia alone, according to police, more than 21,000 demonstrators took part in protests that were often unregistered. The "predominant" part of the demonstrators apparently disregarded the infection protection rules. The police therefore filed dozens of reports of administrative offenses and criminal offenses. In Gera, demonstrators resisted arrest by the police. According to the authorities, three officers and three "protesters" were slightly injured.

In Braunschweig and Cottbus, demonstrators tried to break through police chains. At a demonstration called by the Verdi union in Braunschweig, a demonstrator sprayed pepper spray. As a result, several people were injured - including a police officer and the "Sprayer" himself. In Saxony, where particularly violent clashes had repeatedly occurred in recent weeks, the numerous registered and unregistered demonstrations this Monday were apparently comparatively peaceful.

In Bavaria, too, the demonstrations were mostly peaceful this time. According to the police, an estimated 5,500 participants gathered in Nuremberg alone at a registered demonstration under the motto "Restoration of fundamental rights". Numerous demonstrators also took to the streets in Berlin, Cologne and Munich. According to the police, opponents of the Corona measures clashed with a counter-demonstrator in Kassel. The officials determined a "presumed mutual bodily harm". In Landau, the police finally filed a criminal complaint “on suspicion of disparaging the state and its symbols”. One demonstrator had a “German flag with a banana picture” with him.

The omicron variant of the corona virus is considered to be significantly more contagious.

But according to a study, FFP2 masks protect better against the new mutation than against Delta, for example.