Status: 02.12.2022 09:14 a.m
Health Minister Lauterbach has already spoken of the beginning of a winter wave – the RKI has not gone that far so far. It looks more like a “plateau” of the infection process. However, other respiratory diseases are increasing significantly.
While more people in Germany are currently suffering from respiratory diseases, the corona incidence seems to be stagnating. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the nationwide seven-day incidence in the past week “remained unchanged” compared to the previous week current weekly report. In the week before, the corona incidence had fallen by 17 percent in the same period.
Unlike Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, the RKI has not yet spoken of a winter wave beginning. Rather “a plateau formation” is emerging.
Infection pressure remains high
The number of acute respiratory diseases, on the other hand, has increased compared to the previous week – and at around 8.2 million cases is “significantly higher than in previous years”. These include mainly influenza viruses with more than a third – followed by RSV and to a lesser extent also corona viruses.
In the coming weeks, a further increase in the number of diseases is to be expected due to seasonal factors. “The infection pressure is generally high in autumn in all age groups, since the spread of acute respiratory infections is more difficult to prevent due to more frequent and longer stays indoors,” writes the RKI.
Generally more hospital admissions
Overall, the number of people who are hospitalized with severe respiratory diseases is also increasing. The number has also been “well above the pre-pandemic values” for a few weeks. RSV infections in particular also lead to increased hospitalizations of children.
After the number of hospital treatments for corona infections had decreased, the number now seems to remain the same according to the RKI. People over 80 years of age are still most affected by severe disease progression. According to the RKI, the number of people with Covid who are treated in the intensive care unit has fallen. However, there would be more corona outbreaks in medical treatment facilities.
Share of BQ.1.1 increases to about 13 percent
The Omikron BA.5 line, which has been dominant since mid-June, has almost completely replaced other variants, they say. The proportion of the omicron subline BQ.1.1 continued to increase in the week before last. Their share is now 13.4 percent. Nevertheless, with the increasing spread of BQ.1.1, no increase in the burden of disease is observed, writes the RKI.
On Friday morning, the RKI gave the nationwide seven-day incidence of 205.0. The day before, the value of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week was 201.9 (previous week: 190.8; previous month: 279.1). However, the incidences only provide an incomplete picture of the infection situation. Experts have been assuming for some time that there will be a large number of cases not recorded by the RKI. Most of the results of the weekly report relate to the past week.