corona pandemic
Clearly passed the peak of the wave, but behavior is important
The last corona wave has passed, but behavior remains important – according to the RKI. Photo: Oliver Berg/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
At first there were only signs, now the RKI is certain: the peak of the corona wave has been passed. According to the institute, however, it will not be a sure-fire success in the near future.
Based on several criteria, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) now clearly sees the peak of the current corona wave as passed.
This emerges from the RKI weekly report from Thursday evening, which mainly refers to data from the past week. In the previous issue, the RKI described it as only likely that the summit had been reached or possibly already exceeded.
However, the health experts are still talking about a very high infection pressure – more than a million cases were reported within a week. The capacities in the health system, especially in the inpatient and intensive care areas, are still heavily burdened by staff shortages. Employees were absent due to illness or quarantine.
The RKI appealed on Twitter: “We bear responsibility for ourselves and others!” The course of the next few weeks depends very much on the behavior. It is recommended to wear masks and to keep your distance. You should take risk groups into account and stay at home if you are ill. It was also said again: “Get vaccinated.” The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) recommends a second booster vaccination to protect against serious illness, especially for risk groups and people over 70.
The RKI justified the assessment of the exceeded peak, among other things, with the drop in the nationwide seven-day incidence by 19 percent in a weekly comparison. According to the report, the numbers also fell in all age groups and in almost all federal states. The number of tests and estimated doctor visits also fell.
According to the report, the continued high level of confirmed corona cases can probably be explained by several factors: the easier transmission of the omicron subtype BA.2, the easing and changed behavior of the population. BA.2 had spread more and more in recent weeks and, according to the latest available data, caused around nine out of ten new infections the week before last. A sample suggests that.
At times, more than 1.5 million new infections were reported weekly in March. In addition, experts suspect a very high number of unreported cases, for example because a PCR test is not always carried out after a positive rapid test.