Corona: Fewer weekly cases
Victoria Becker completed a Bachelor of Arts in “Online Editing” at the TH Köln and wrote a practical thesis at the Goethe-Institut Lithuania. She is currently studying media and communication sciences as a master at the University of Lund, Sweden, and writes for, among other things.
More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.Taking a breather from the infection process in Germany? Heavily expanded tests caused corona evidence to increase drastically, and a plateau could now be reached. Nevertheless, the development remains worrying, warns the Robert Koch Institute.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 785 new corona infections in Germany on Sunday, and 610 cases on Monday. However, these numbers are not very meaningful with regard to the actual infection process - experience has shown that the reported number of cases is lower on Sundays because not all health authorities transmit data to the RKI at the weekend.
Stabilization of the situation?
The cases reported to the RKI provide a clue for assessing the incidence of infection within one week. This number was 7905 on Sunday (data status August 30th, 12 midnight) and thus below that of the previous day. A week ago (23.8.) The value was 8528. On the Sunday before (16.8.) It was 6837, a month ago (2.8.) It was 4127.
The development of the last few days, as well as the increased number of circles that did not transmit any corona cases in the past seven days, indicate a possible stabilization of the situation, according to the RKI. But: "Even if the number of cases is falling again in some federal states, the development of the last few weeks remains worrying."
More frequent infection among younger people
It is noticeable that more and more younger people have become infected in recent weeks, the RKI announced on Saturday. It is important to prevent transmission to the elderly and particularly vulnerable population groups. "Should older people become infected again, a resurgence in hospitalizations and deaths must be expected."
Severe courses are much less common in younger people than in older people. According to the DIVI intensive care registry, around 240 patients are currently receiving intensive care in German clinics - this number has so far remained fairly stable despite the increasing number of cases. In mid-April, more than 2000 Covid-19 patients were in intensive care units.
Number of reproductions decreased
According to RKI estimates in Germany, the number of reproductions, or R value for short, was 1.04 (previous day: 1.04). This means that one infected person infects a little more than one other person on average. The R-value depicts the infection process approximately one and a half weeks beforehand.
In addition, the RKI gives a so-called seven-day R in its current situation report. The value relates to a longer period of time and is therefore less subject to daily fluctuations. According to RKI estimates, this value was 0.95 (previous day: 1.01). It shows the infection process from eight to 16 days ago.
The R-values have been above 1 since mid-July 2020 and again around 1. "This was largely due to the increasing number of people entering the country, especially those traveling during the summer holidays, but also to a larger number of smaller outbreaks and the nationwide total number of cases, which had risen in the last few weeks, "said the RKI. (vb / dpa)
