Germany again registered this Wednesday new maximum incidence and daily infections since the beginning of the pandemic, with an insufficient vaccination rate to face the fourth wave.
The German health authorities verified 39,676 new infections, the third record in less than a week, after the 37,120 reported last Friday and the 33,949 on Thursday, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) of virology updated last morning. The previous daily maximum was recorded on December 18, in the middle of the second wave of the pandemic, when 33,777 new infections were reported.
The accumulated incidence in seven days marks its third consecutive record and stands at 232.1 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants, after 213.7 yesterday and 201.1 on Monday, and compared to 146.6 a week ago.
The previous peak of incidence was recorded on December 22, in the middle of the second wave of the pandemic, with 197.6 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants. The death toll from or with covid-19 rose to 236, up from 194 a week ago.
According to the latest daily report from the RKI, 1,105 hospitalizations for coronavirus were reported on Monday and a seven-day cumulative admission rate of 4.31 per 100,000 inhabitants. The maximum number of hospitalizations was recorded in the days around last Christmas, with an accumulated rate of 15.5.
On Monday, the number of patients with Covid-19 in the ICUs stood at 2,616 -84 more in one day-, which corresponds to an occupation of 11.8% of available beds in critical care units for the adult population
Rate stagnant vaccination
As of Monday, 69.7% of the population of Germany had been vaccinated, 67% with the full schedule. “Precisely in a fourth wave like this, vaccination makes a difference. We continue to experience, at least in the ICUs, a pandemic of the unvaccinated, which once again puts pressure on the system, because the number of unvaccinated is large” , the acting Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, warned today.
He added in an interview on NTV’s morning show that thousands of citizens are still convinced every day, but you can also see that “it is becoming more and more difficult to reach those who are not yet vaccinated.”
On the other hand, he pointed out that “with an incidence like this, without vaccines”, Germany would already be in a very different situation, and added that although the vaccines allow a certain normality, they must be accompanied by “great caution”.
He also pronounced himself in favor of the 2G rule – by the German terms Geimpft and Genesen (vaccinated and healed) – indoors, at least in those regions with significant hospital pressure.
He recalled that according to the RKI, the 2G should be applied at the latest when the cumulative rate of admissions in seven days with covid patients is 5 per 100,000 inhabitants.
