The Robert Koch Institute publishes the current number of corona cases in Germany. The seven-day incidence is falling again.
Berlin/Frankfurt – The Robert Koch Institute put the nationwide seven-day corona incidence on Friday (August 5) at 432.2. This is the value that the RKI dashboard lists at 3:40 a.m. On Friday of the previous week, the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week was 607.0.
However, the incidence still does not provide a complete picture of the infection situation. For months, experts have been assuming that there will be a large number of cases not recorded by the RKI – mainly because by far 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 59,506 new corona infections (previous week: 84.79) and 165 deaths (previous week: 153) 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 31,178,705 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 144,717 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday (5 Aug) | 59,506 | 165 | 432.2 |
| Thursday (4 August) | 74,645 | 192 | 451.3 |
| Wednesday (3 August) | 87,681 | 210 | 477.9 |
| Tuesday (2 August) | 102,698 | 171 | 516.1 |
| Saturday (July 30) | 66,003 | 117 | 578.1 |
| Friday (July 29) | 84,798 | 153 | 607.0 |
| source | Dashboard Robert Koch Institute/RKI |
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 course of the week. Therefore, the RKI no longer publishes figures on Sundays and Mondays.
Current Corona case numbers: Important information about 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.
Have you been infected with omicron or suspect it? Here you can find out everything you need to know about the corona variant Omikron – including symptoms and incubation period. (slo/ktho/jfw with dpa/AFP)
