Variant portion BA.5 doubles from week to week

According to the RKI’s weekly report, the seven-day incidence is increasing again. Image: dpa

The “corona infection pressure” could increase as early as summer. Seasonal effects cannot compensate for the spread of BA variants if rules of conduct are no longer observed, according to the RKI’s weekly report.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) expects further dissemination of transferable omicron sublines. “The strongest growth currently is shown by the ratio of sublines BA.4 and BA.5,” writes the RKI in the weekly Corona report on Thursday evening. This suggests that these pathogens will make up most of the evidence in a few weeks.

According to the report, BA.5 had a 10% share in a sample from the week before last – the doubling continued from week to week. In BA.4 it is 2.1 percent, which is also approximately double the previous values.

As many infections as possible in summer

“In all likelihood, these two underscores will spread further, so there could be a general increase in the number of infections and a renewed increase in infection pressure on vulnerable groups of people as early as summer,” warns the RKI. Seasonal effects – which actually slow the virus down a bit – could not compensate for the spread of these variants if the rules of conduct were no longer observed.

The RKI states that the national seven-day incidence increased again last week compared to the previous week for the first time since mid-March (29%). He spoke of an increase in the number of infections transmitted last week by about 50,000 cases compared to the week before. So far, there has been no talk of a trend reversal in the situation in hospitals: According to the RKI, the burden on the capacities of the health system continues to decrease.