Status: 02/16/2023 7:40 p.m
The corona incidence is increasing, but remains at a low level. According to the Robert Koch Institute, the number of acute respiratory diseases has also increased. Further developments are difficult to predict.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the nationwide corona incidence is still at a “comparatively low level”. However, the seven-day incidence increased slightly in the past week compared to the previous week, wrote the RKI in its weekly report on Corona.
The further development depends on various factors and is currently difficult to predict against the background of the further de-escalation of measures and major events, especially with regard to influenza and Covid-19, writes the RKI on its risk assessment website.
The number of respiratory diseases is increasing
The number of acute respiratory diseases in the population in Germany has increased compared to the previous week and is in the upper range of values for the pre-pandemic years at this time, according to the RKI.
It also makes sense to comply with recommendations for protection against infection: for example, you should stay at home if you are sick, wear a mask indoors and air it out frequently.
Different variants are increasing
However, the share of the previously dominant Omicron line BA.5 continued to decline and was only 54 percent during the week. In contrast, the share of the BA.2 and XBB.1 lines including sub-lines increased to 22 and 20 percent respectively. However, the values are based on low absolute numbers, because the complete virus genome is only examined in a very small proportion of positive samples.
“Preliminary data suggest that both XBB.1.5 and some sublineages of BA.2.75 possess a transmission advantage over other sublineages as well as significant immune escape properties,” it said. It is therefore to be expected that the shares will increase in the coming weeks. However, no increase in the severity of the disease is observed with the increasing spread.
According to the RKI, the proportion of influenza B viruses detected among all influenza viruses has increased significantly in recent weeks.