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The number of new corona infections reported has reached the highest daily value since April. This is based on information from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Thursday morning. German health authorities reported 2,194 new corona infections in one day.
What do the numbers mean?
The number of nine daily infections is only a value to estimate the development of the pandemic. Also crucial is how high the positive test ratio is and how busy the hospitals are. The previous high point with more than 6,000 new infections reported was reached in late March and early April. After that, the number fell and rose again in July. By August, more than 2,000 new infections had been reported.
Is the pandemic spreading again like it did in April?
It has not yet been possible to assess this with certainty. Today’s and April’s figures are barely comparable because testing capabilities have increased. Also, there are fluctuations in the number of new infections over the course of the week because health authorities report significantly fewer cases over the weekend.
So there’s no problem?
Christian Drosten sees no fluctuations in the recent increase. “Now we are on the rise again,” said the virologist in Berlin at the communications congress of the Federal Association of Communicators, where he was awarded for his educational work on the pandemic.
According to the RKI, numerous smaller crown outbreaks continue to occur across the country, for example in connection with returning travelers and in connection with celebrations with family and friends. However, the proportion of coronavirus cases among returning travelers has dropped significantly since mid-August. According to the RKI, more and more people in Germany are getting infected again.
What role do clusters play in Germany?
According to Drosten, the current situation is therefore different from that of August. The fluctuations in August were mainly due to cases imported from abroad and the chains of infection in Germany were broken.
According to the virologist, this distinction is important. A now known case is primarily an indication of a group in which the person in question was infected. It can be a group of people at a family celebration or an office community. In the case of returning travelers, this cluster is located abroad. In current cases it is different. “That means we have to adjust to the fact that what we see is the beginning of an increase in incidence that needs to be re-controlled at some point.”
Is a second lockdown coming?
Drosten emphasized that the situation was not comparable to that of March. Even if more than 6000 new diagnoses were reported per day in the near future, as it was then, it would not be the same because many more would be tested. A crash could probably be avoided.
“We have a lot more sensitivity,” Drosten said. Therefore, more existing infections should be recognized than in spring. On the other hand, there are now more infected young people who do not become seriously ill. However, nothing is clear.
What is important now?
According to the RKI, fewer and fewer people infected with corona are currently dying. “This is mainly due to the fact that a relatively large number of newly diagnosed young people, of whom relatively few become seriously ill and die,” writes the RKI.
In particular, older and particularly vulnerable population groups must now be prevented from falling ill again. “Since last week there has been a slight increase in the number of cases in the older age groups; this course must be carefully monitored.” According to the DIVI intensive care registry, the situation in intensive care units is still relaxed.
Drosten had already emphasized several times in the past that infections in particular groups should be stopped. Several outbreaks show that the virus can spread rapidly under certain conditions, in so-called super-spread events. He is currently investigating whether a bar in Hamburg could have caused a major outbreak. 600 people are likely to be affected, who must now be quarantined as a precaution.
According to the RKI, at least 265,857 people in Germany have been shown to have been infected with the Sars-CoV-2 virus since the start of the corona crisis. According to the RKI, the number of deaths related to a corona infection is 9,371. Three more deaths have been reported since the previous day. According to RKI estimates, around 237,300 people had survived the infection as of Thursday morning.
