Corona virus in Germany: seven-day incidence exceeds 900 threshold

Enlarge image

Corona test center in Cologne

Photo: Roberto Pfeil / dpa

The incidence value and the number of new corona infections in Germany have reached new highs.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the seven-day incidence on Wednesday morning as 940.6.

On Tuesday the value was 894.3, on Wednesday last week it was 584.4.

The incidence quantifies the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants over a period of seven days.

According to data from the health authorities, the number of new infections within 24 hours was 164,000 on Wednesday – after 126,955 the day before and 112,323 on Wednesday last week.

This exceeded the previous high of 140,160 from last Friday.

As the RKI further announced, citing data from the health authorities, 166 new deaths related to the corona virus were counted on Wednesday.

According to the latest information from the institute, the health authorities have recorded a total of 9,035,795 cases of infection since the beginning of the pandemic.

The total number of registered corona deaths in Germany is now 117,126.

The RKI puts the number of people in Germany who have recovered from an illness caused by the coronavirus at around 7,387,800.

In November, the federal and state governments had defined 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 the hospital within seven days because of a corona infection.

According to the latest RKI report on Tuesday, the hospitalization incidence nationwide was 4.07.

After a few weeks of stagnation, the value has recently picked up again significantly.

Vaccination debate in the Bundestag

This Wednesday, the Bundestag is debating the introduction of a general obligation to vaccinate in the fight against the corona virus.

Group applications are planned by MPs from different parties who are in favor of or against compulsory vaccination.

The traffic light government does not want to submit its own application, but to allow cross-party applications with reference to ethical issues.

The advocates of compulsory vaccination justify it, among other things, with the low vaccination rate in Germany.

Your opponents see them as an inadmissible encroachment on personal liberties.

more on the subject

Corona mutations: what the spread of the omicron subtype BA.2 meansBy Katherine Rydlink

There are three models being considered: compulsory vaccination for everyone over the age of 18, a requirement only for people over a certain age, around 50 or 60, and the rejection of compulsory vaccination. The debate on Wednesday is expected to last around three hours.

Business associations have meanwhile called on politicians to come up with framework conditions that can be implemented in the event that general vaccination is introduced in Germany.

“Should vaccination become compulsory after all other means have been exhausted, it must be proportionate, understandable and practicable,” said Industry President Siegfried Russwurm and Employer President Rainer Dulger to the dpa news agency.

"We are convinced that compulsory vaccination will then also find broader acceptance among those who are affected by it." From the point of view of the Federal Association of Medium-sized Businesses, compulsory vaccination should initially be introduced in stages.

cop/AFP