New infections break a new record: Lauterbach with a gloomy forecast - "Irrelevant snapshot"

Created: 2022-01-20Updated: 2022-01-20 07:03

By: Franziska Konrad

Lauterbach expects a steep increase in corona infections in the coming weeks.

© Kay Nietfeld/dpa

The corona numbers in Germany continue to skyrocket.

According to Health Minister Lauterbach, however, the peak in the incidence is far from being reached.

The news ticker.

• The corona incidence in Germany has reached a new record.

• Health Minister Lauterbach expects infections to peak by mid-February.

• This news ticker is continuously updated.

Berlin – The current corona trend is continuing in Germany: the number of infections is increasing – and breaking new records every day.

The incidence* in the Federal Republic is 638.8 on Thursday morning, January 20 (previous day:

584.4).

The RKI also reports over 133,000 infections on Thursday - both new highs.

Karl Lauterbach expects that this development will not change too quickly.

By mid-February, the Minister of Health is forecasting several hundred thousand new infections* a day.

Corona: Lauterbach expects several hundred thousand new infections a day

With a view to realistic scenarios, it can be assumed “that the wave will peak around mid-February and that we will then have to expect several hundred thousand cases a day,” said the SPD politician on Wednesday evening in the ZDF program “Markus Lanz”. . Although it is not certain that the scenarios will come about, "they have the greatest probability".

There are countries that could cope with such numbers with a view to the intensive care units - however, the situation in Germany is different.

Lauterbach warns: "Since we have a high number of unvaccinated among the elderly in Germany, things can turn out very differently here than in Italy, France or England, for example".

A concrete example: In England, for example, the number of unvaccinated people in the over-50s group is one to two percent.

"These are values ​​that we cannot reach."

Corona in Germany: According to Lauterbach, the hospitalization rate is “irrelevant snapshot”

So far, however, the wave triggered by the Omicron virus variant has not been reflected in the intensive care units.

According to the medical association Divi, the number of corona patients there has fallen from around 5,000 to 2,664 since the first half of December.

At the moment, comparatively few older people who are particularly susceptible to severe courses are infected.

Lauterbach said of the falling hospitalization rate that this was an "irrelevant snapshot" because the wave that is currently running in England and France is yet to come in Germany.

"I would expect the right load in the intensive care units in mid or late February, that's still a month away and then I hope it will still look good," said Lauterbach.

"That's going to be the endurance test, not what we're seeing now.

You can read more news about the corona pandemic here.