A woman wears a face mask in front of a tram. (Iconic image) Image: dpa
The underline omicron BA.5 is playing a growing role in this country, writes the Robert Koch Institute in the weekly Covid 19 report. The number of PCR tests to detect Sars-CoV-2 has reached its lowest level in recent months.
In the corona pandemic, the steady decline in the number of cases can be stopped for now. In the week to May 29, the national seven-day incidence was down 37% compared to the previous week, writes the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in the Covid 19 weekly report Thursday night. In the current week, however, the decline in incidence is stagnant. Most of the report refers to last week.
Data on virus variants show that the omicron subline BA.5 is playing an increasing role in Germany. Among other things, it has already caused a significant increase in the number of cases in South Africa and Portugal. In Germany, random polls have been recording an approximate doubling of the week-to-week ratio since late April. However, this is still happening at a very low level: according to current RKI data, the BA.5 variant now accounts for 5.2% of all infection cases. As before, however, the BA.2 underscore is still mostly found. BA-4 evidence is also increasing a bit, but in the range of less than one percent.
As the report further shows, the number of PCR tests for Sars-CoV-2 in Germany has dropped below 500,000 a week for the first time in months. The Ascension Day holiday likely plays a role as well.
The RKI also requires compliance with recommendations to prevent infection. In particular, it calls on risk groups and people over 70 to protect themselves against serious illness with a second booster vaccination.
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