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Hospital staff in Westerstede (archive image)
Photo: Martin Meissner / AP
This Friday, too, the trend towards partly rising corona key figures continues.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reports
252,836 new infections
within 24 hours.
That's 35,243 more cases than on Friday a week ago, when 217,593 positive tests were reported.
Overall, the number of confirmed infections in Germany is more than 16.7 million.
On Thursday, however, the RKI reported significantly more cases with 262,752.
The nationwide
seven-day incidence
rises to
1439.0
from 1388.5 the previous day.
249 other people died
in connection with the virus.
This increases the number of reported deaths to 125,272.
In ten out of 16 federal states, the seven-day incidence has increased in the past week.
This emerges from the weekly report of the RKI on Thursday evening.
Nationwide, the incidence increased by two percent between the week before last and the last week.
Virus subtype likely to cause surge
The reason for the current increase in Covid-19 cases is probably the easier transferability of the omicron subtype BA.2 and the withdrawal of contact-reducing measures.
“The further course of the pandemic depends to a large extent on how behavior in the population changes and to what extent possible contacts relevant to infection increase,” says the weekly report.
A further increase in the number of cases cannot be ruled out.
According to the weekly report, the highest incidences are still recorded in the group of 5 to 24 year olds.
The last time it was there was around 2,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days.
In people aged 65 and over, the seven-day incidence stagnated in the previous week.
In view of the increasing number of infections, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach called for more vaccinations on Thursday.
The gap is so large that “without a significant improvement in vaccination willingness and vaccination rates, we will have significant problems again in the fall,” said the SPD politician in Berlin.
If the growing omicron wave is not controlled, there would be 200 to 300 deaths every day for many weeks.
According to the weekly report, the proportion of the more easily transmissible omicron subtype BA.2 in a sample rose to 48 percent by the end of February.
The week before, the figure was still 38 percent.
In a population with high immunity - through vaccination or infection - BA.2 does not cause more severe disease than the original omicron subtype BA.1.
jok/Reuters