The number of new corona infections in Germany has again exceeded the 20,000 mark. As the Rober Koch Institute reports, 21,866 new cases of infection have been registered in the past 24 hours. That is around 3,400 more than the day before, when almost 18,500 cases were reported. Most recently, the numbers were below the mark of 20,000 new infections for four days in a row.
According to the latest figures from the RKI, a total of 727,553 cases of infection have been registered in Germany since the start of the pandemic. Health officials also reported 215 new coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of deaths rose to 11,982.
According to the RKI situation report on Wednesday evening, the so-called seven-day R was 0.89 (previous day: 0.92). This means that 100 infected people theoretically infect around 89 other people. The value represents the occurrence of the infection eight to 16 days ago. If it is below one for a long time, the infection process subsides.
Lots of intensive care patients
Health Minister Jens Spahn is concerned about the persistently high number of new infections. He fears that the number of corona patients in intensive care units will double this month. If there are 20,000 newly infected people every day over a longer period of time and two percent of them have to be treated in intensive care units for two weeks, their number will likely rise to more than 6,000 at the same time in November, said Spahn of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. “The numbers must not rise higher,” he emphasized. “If so, we would foreseeably come to a point where the health system is overwhelmed.”
Doctors and nurses could deal with 6,000 corona patients in intensive care units, the minister said: “But only under very great stress. That is why we have to pull together all our forces in the hospitals.” Operations would have to be postponed again, and staff from the operating room would have to help in the intensive care units.
Restrictions all winter long?
Spahn expects continued corona restrictions for the entire winter. Even if the infection numbers were brought down by the partial lockdown in November, that does not mean that things can really start again from December or January and that there will be wedding celebrations or Christmas parties again as if nothing had happened, the CDU politician tells the RBB. “That’s why I already think the message is important: I won’t see events with more than ten, 15 people (…) this winter.”
Virologist Ulrike Protzer also expects continued restrictions. The director of the Institute for Virology at the Technical University of Munich said in the ARD morning magazine that she assumed that this would last until February. In view of the renewed increase in the number of new infections in Germany, she urged the population to consistently adhere to the rules and wear masks in order to prevent further tightening of measures.
Chancellor Angela Merkel already said yesterday that, in her opinion, the corona pandemic would continue to shape life in Germany in the coming months. In a statement in Berlin, Merkel drew a comparison with the Spanish flu “around 100 years ago”. As was the case then, it must now be assumed that “the second wave is harder”. In addition, the second Corona wave falls “in a bad season”. There are now “positive messages regarding the development of vaccines”. But this will “not yet have a serious impact” in the winter months, which is why it is still advisable to continue to observe the precautionary measures against the spread of the virus.
