DThe current summer wave of corona infections has recently flattened out further. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) came to this conclusion in its latest weekly report on Thursday evening. Within a week, the nationwide seven-day incidence has fallen by about a fifth. In the last week of July, young people between the ages of five and 19 became infected much less frequently than before; In this age group, the incidence fell by more than a third in some cases.
At the same time, the experts also recorded fewer illnesses. The RKI estimates that between 600,000 and 1.3 million people nationwide were infected with the corona virus within a week at the end of July and showed symptoms of an acute respiratory disease. Around 310,000 people affected went to the doctor during this period.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is also currently affected by an infection. The ministry said on Friday night that he had tested positive for the virus on Thursday evening. Lauterbach has “only mild symptoms”, he has been vaccinated four times and carries out his official duties “temporarily from domestic isolation”.
Other viruses are also currently spreading
Overall, the RKI assumes that around 3.3 million people recently suffered from an acute respiratory disease, and around one in three went to the doctor because of it. According to the RKI, these values are “significantly higher than in previous years at this time of year”. In addition to the corona virus, which in Germany now occurs almost exclusively in the form of the omicron subvariant BA.5, rhinoviruses and parainfluenza viruses are also currently circulating. However, adults are currently the most likely to be infected with Corona. For the first time since the beginning of June, the number of patients who had to go to hospital with a positive corona test and acute respiratory diseases has fallen. Nationwide, around 2,700 people were admitted to hospital within a week, presumably because of Covid-19.
However, the RKI does not give the all-clear in its report. The scientists continue to describe the infection pressure in the population as “high”. The burden on the healthcare system is also correspondingly high, although the situation has recently improved somewhat. “In the coming weeks, a continued high number of hospitalizations, Covid-19 patients requiring intensive care and deaths, especially in older age groups, is to be expected,” the RKI expects.
Above all, the increase in corona outbreaks in old people’s and nursing homes, in which people with a comparatively high risk of a severe course of the disease are housed, plays a role in assessing the situation. The number of affected facilities rose within a week from 305 to 370 most recently, and almost 3,000 people were newly infected there within a few days.
New health insurance data from Rhineland-Palatinate shows how strong the virus spread, especially in the first half of the year. In the first half of the year, employees in the federal state were almost seven times as likely to be sick due to Covid-19 as in the same period of the previous year. The omicron variant caused 61 days of absence per 100 insured persons, said the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit on Friday after evaluating the sick leave of more than 150,000 insured persons. Overall, the sick leave of the insured in Rhineland-Palatinate was 4.5 percent of the employees during this time. It was thus 0.5 percentage points higher than in the first half of 2021.
