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The number of new daily corona infections remains high in Germany. The RKI reports 17,214 more infected people since yesterday. The infection rate, the so-called R-value, dropped slightly.
German health authorities reported 17,214 new corona infections to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in one day. This comes from the RKI information in the morning. On Wednesday a week ago, the number of new infections reported was 14,964, almost double the number on Wednesday of the previous week.
The number of new infections reported is now below last week’s highs. On Saturday, the RKI announced the record value of 19,059 new infections recorded in one day. That was the highest number in Germany since the start of the pandemic.
According to the RKI, a total of 577,593 people across Germany have been infected with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic (until November 4, 00:00). The number of deaths related to the virus rose by 151 on Wednesday to a total of 10,812. The RKI estimated Tuesday that about 371,500 people have recovered; Wednesday’s information was initially missing.
There was a glitch with the RKI dashboard in the morning, the RKI initially only made the current information available here.
Playback number back below one
It’s also important to look at the corona infection rate: the number of reproductions, or the R-value for short, fell slightly according to the RKI, to just under one. This means that an infected person infects slightly less than another person on average. The R value represents the infection rate approximately one and a half weeks earlier.
In addition, the RKI includes the so-called seven-day R in its management report. The value refers to a longer period of time and is therefore less subject to daily fluctuations. According to RKI estimates, this value was 0.98 on Tuesday (previous day: 1.04). It shows the infection process for eight to 16 days.
RKI Deputy Chief Lars Schaade had previously stated that the rate had to stay well below one for a long time. The target could be 0.7 in size. “So we are back in an area that we can control.”
Bottlenecks in clinics and laboratories
Since Monday, public life in Germany has been closed considerably, initially for four weeks. The goal is to reduce the number of new infections to relieve hospitals, laboratories and health authorities. There are already bottlenecks in these areas. Intensive care units fear not having enough beds and nurses for the expected increase in patient numbers. The number of intensive care patients from Covid 19 has already risen sharply, from 362 on October 1 to 2,243.
Labs are also reaching their limits. For the first time nationwide, testing capacity has been completely exhausted, announced the Association of Accredited Laboratories in Medicine, based on data from 162 laboratories. Meanwhile, “the red light has been run over.” In the event of more sample floods or possible equipment or personnel failure, there is a threat of a supply collapse. It is necessary to concentrate the capacity of 1.4 million tests per week in urgent cases. Too many PCR tests would still be done without symptoms.
New test criteria
Therefore, the RKI adapted the recommendations to doctors on the criteria of the test: the factors include symptoms, belonging to a risk group and the probability of having been exposed to the coronavirus.
The around 400 health authorities across the country are also at their limit or even beyond. More and more authorities are no longer able to comprehensively track and break the chains of infection. However, contact tracing is considered essential to combat pandemics.
The crown’s situation is also worsening in Europe. Due to the consistently high number of new infections, many countries neighboring Germany imposed strict restrictions. Here is an overview:
