The number of laboratory-confirmed corona cases in Germany is increasing again, but at a relatively low level. This development has been going on for about a month, reports the influenza working group at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in its current report on acute respiratory diseases. This refers to the week ending August 13th. According to this, around 2,400 people who were diagnosed with Covid-19 were reported nationwide last week. That’s more than double the week ending June 9, when it was around 1,000.
The RKI also speaks of further indications of an increase in Covid 19 activity in Germany. There is no indication of a change in the severity of the disease. “Overall, however, the Covid 19 incidence values are still very low,” write the RKI experts.
Variant EG.5 on the rise
According to the report, the increase in the number of reports is accompanied by an increasing proportion of variant EG.5. Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded this to the category “virus variants of interest”. However, experts do not assume that the variant, sometimes also called Eris, is particularly dangerous.
According to the RKI report, the activity of acute respiratory diseases in the general population was “at a low summer level”. In addition to Corona, it is mainly due to rhinoviruses, i.e. cold and cold pathogens. “Anyone who has symptoms of an acute respiratory infection should stay at home for three to five days and until the symptoms improve significantly,” advises the RKI.
The WHO had declared the international corona health emergency over three months ago. The data situation has deteriorated compared to the pandemic years. According to the WHO, it has less and less information about the corona situation in the world. It can be assumed that laboratory tests for Sars-CoV-2 will also be carried out in Germany, especially in the more seriously ill. According to the RKI report, around a quarter of the reported corona cases have been hospitalized in the past few weeks. The reporting numbers represent only a small part of what actually happened. Many mild courses are not recorded.
