Vaccinations, warm weather and a corona variant that causes a milder course of the disease on average than the previous one: the corona development continues to improve. Nevertheless, caution is required.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), corona infections and hospital admissions continue to decline significantly. The RKI announced in its weekly report for the period from May 16 to 22 that the seven-day incidence had fallen by 28.8 percent compared to the previous week.
It registered 350 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days. Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Lower Saxony had the highest seven-day incidences among the federal states.
The number of reported infections per week fell nationwide from 408,406 to 290,885. In view of these numbers, however, the RKI still assesses the risk to the population as high. The vaccination has not lost its importance, writes the RKI. In particular, people from risk groups and over 70 years of age should protect themselves against serious illnesses with a second booster vaccination.
Incidences are falling in these age groups
According to the RKI, the incidences continued to fall in all age groups compared to the previous week. The decline was strongest among the five to nine year olds at 40 percent, followed by the zero to four year olds at 38 percent. However, the incidences also fell by 24 to 30 percent in the age groups over 70 years.
The number of hospital admissions has been falling steadily since a peak in mid-March. The number of deaths also continues to decrease. The RKI emphasizes that vaccination has not lost its importance. On Tuesday, the Standing Vaccination Committee (Stiko) also recommended a corona vaccination for healthy children between the ages of five and eleven.
Among the Corona lines, Omikron BA.2 clearly dominates with 96.4 percent, but their share has decreased slightly. BA.5’s share has roughly doubled, from 1.2 to 2.5 percent. BA.4 has also increased slightly to 0.4 percent.
A small number of mixed variants were observed, but no strong growth was observed. According to the RKI, there are no epidemiological indications of a change in their transmissibility, their virulence or an altered immune response. Only a fraction of the positive tests for individual lines are evaluated. In addition, these dates refer to the 19th calendar week (9-15 May).
Since Thursday is a holiday, the RKI published its weekly report on Wednesday evening and in a greatly abbreviated version.
