The Robert Koch Institute will publish the current number of corona cases in Germany on Thursday (October 20). The development of the data at a glance.
Berlin/Frankfurt – The Robert Koch Institute put the nationwide seven-day corona incidence on Thursday (October 20) at 661.3 . This is the value that the RKI dashboard lists at 6 a.m. On Thursday of the previous week, the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week was 793.8.
However, the incidence does not provide a complete picture of the infection situation. For a long time, experts have assumed that there will be a large number of cases not recorded by the RKI – mainly because not all infected people have a PCR test done. Only positive PCR tests count in the statistics. In addition, late registrations or transmission problems can lead to the distortion of individual daily values.
Corona in Germany: Many infections are not recognized or reported
The health authorities in Germany also reported 116,806 new corona infections (previous week: 145,213) and 223 deaths (previous week: 176) to the RKI within one day. Here, too, comparisons of the data are only meaningful to a limited extent due to the test behavior, late registrations and transmission problems. The RKI has counted 35,005,769 proven infections with Sars-CoV-2 in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic. However, the actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections go undetected. Overall, the RKI dashboard shows 152,100 deaths in Germany in connection with Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Corona in Germany: An overview of developments over the past week
Day | new infections | deaths | incidence |
---|---|---|---|
Thursday (October 20) | 116,806 | 223 | 661.3 |
Wednesday (October 19) | 130,074 | 248 | 670.5 |
Tuesday (October 18) | 150,052 | 209 | 687.5 |
Saturday (October 15) | 91,508 | 160 | 731.9 |
Friday (October 14) | 114,198 | 165 | 760.1 |
Thursday (October 13) | 145,213 | 176 | 793.8 |
source | Dashboard Robert Koch Institute/RKI | Information provided without guarantee |
Corona pandemic in Germany: Inaccurate picture of the current infection situation
The current number of cases and incidences do not provide a clear picture of the current infection situation. In general, the number of registered new infections and deaths varies significantly from weekday to weekday, since many federal states do not transmit to the RKI, especially on weekends and public holidays, and only report the cases later in the week. Therefore, the RKI no longer publishes figures on Sundays and Mondays or after public holidays.
Current Corona case numbers: Important note on the figures from the RKI
- When considering the values, it must be taken into account that some countries do not report data on every day of the week. At the weekend, the transmission by health authorities is not legally obligatory. Since there are no direct consequences at state or federal level, fewer and fewer health authorities and federal states are transmitting the data on Saturdays and Sundays. There may also be delays on public holidays.
- Daily fluctuations should therefore not be overestimated, especially at the weekend and at the beginning of the week. This in turn leads to late registrations on the following days. A comparison of daily values is therefore becoming increasingly difficult. For the assessment of the course, the consideration of the weekly comparison is therefore more expedient.
- Experts have also been assuming for some time that there will be a large number of cases not recorded by the RKI – due to overworked health authorities and because not all infected people have a PCR test done. Only these count in the statistics. In addition, late registrations or transmission problems can lead to a distortion of individual daily values.
- Therefore, when interpreting the current number of cases, it should be noted that there may be an increased under-recording of cases in the reporting system due to the lower testing, reporting and transmission activity. A detailed assessment of the epidemiological situation takes place every Thursday in the weekly report of the RKI.
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