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Hospital in Berlin (archive picture)
Photo: Christoph Soeder / dpa
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has again published figures that could indicate a worsening of the corona situation.
In other industrialized countries, including neighboring France, maximum values are already reported for new infections.
It's not that far in Germany yet.
Nevertheless, the trend is upwards in this country too: The RKI reported
58,912 new infections
within 24 hours .
That's 18,869 cases more than on Wednesday a week ago when 40,043 positive tests were reported.
The nationwide
seven-day incidence
also increased significantly,
to 258.6
from 239.9 the previous day.
The value indicates how many people per 100,000 inhabitants have been infected with the corona virus in the past seven days.
346 other deaths
have been reported related to the virus.
This increases the number of reported deaths within one day to 112,925.
In total, more than 7.29 million corona tests have so far been positive in Germany.
Today, Wednesday, the health ministers of the federal states are discussing the corona situation.
Before the Prime Minister's Conference with Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Friday, they meet with Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) for a video switch.
The current quarantine rules should be a focus of the deliberations.
The heads of the federal and state governments want to discuss a shortening of quarantine and isolation times on Friday, with which personnel bottlenecks at important facilities are to be avoided.
In particular, problems with the structural infrastructure - such as hospitals, the police or power plants - should be avoided at all costs.
Debate about school lessons after the holidays
In addition, the education ministers of the federal states are meeting today to discuss the resumption of lessons in schools after the Christmas break.
In a video conference, the school ministers also want to give recommendations for the deliberations of the Prime Minister's Conference.
It is expected that the ministers of education will speak out in favor of keeping schools open despite the increased spread of the Omikron variant of the coronavirus.
The chairman of the Conference of Ministers of Education, Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of Education, Karin Prien (CDU), spoke out clearly against school closings before the deliberations.
She also justified this with the fact that there has so far been no evidence that the Omikron variant is more dangerous for school children than the Delta variant, which dominates until the holidays.
jok / Reuters