Germany sets a new record for incidence and new infections with covid

Berlin, 18 Mar Germany today recorded new consecutive records for cumulative incidence and new infections, while the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for virology appeals to citizen responsibility. Health authorities verified 297,845 new positives within 24 hours, compared to 252,836 a week ago, while the cumulative incidence for the first time exceeded 1,700 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days. Thus, the cumulative incidence stood at 1,706.3, after 1,651.4 yesterday and 1,439.0 a week ago, according to RKI data updated last morning. The death toll in 24 hours totaled 226, compared to 249 last Friday. Meanwhile, active cases are estimated at around 3,837,900. In its weekly report, the RKI states that the subvariant of omicron BA.2 continues to advance in Germany and is already the dominant one. Until the end of the first week of March, this subvariant had been detected in 62% of the cases analyzed, compared to 50% a week earlier. The rest of the variants, including delta, account for less than 1% of cases. The RKI considers that the new notable increase in cases of covid-19 is due to the greater ease of transmission of the BA.2 subline, as well as the lifting of contact reduction measures and a change in behavior in the population. According to the RKI, the evolution of the pandemic now depends on “whether the majority of the population continues to behave responsibly or to what extent potential relevant contacts in the area of infection increase”. The vaccination campaign is hardly progressing and as of Thursday, 76.5 per cent of the population (63.6 million people) had been vaccinated, 75.8 per cent (63 million) with the full schedule, while 58.1 per cent (48.3 million) had received a booster dose. CHIEF egw/ah