Lother wieler

Skyrocketing infection numbers in Germany mean that the country must reckon with an increase in the number of hospitalizations and deaths, Robert Koch Institute President Lothar Wieler told journalists on Friday. Wieler said that, in just a few days, the more transmissible omicron variant would have completely displaced the previous dominant strain, delta. The institute chief said — with a sharp rise in infections in the past week — Germany was entering a new phase of the pandemic. Even if infections with omicron were milder, as early evidence has suggested, Wieler said the sheer number of new infections meant the country had to expect more severe illness and deaths. So far, the number of deaths has not risen, said Wieler. "But that will change," he added. Watch video 01:48 German leaders agree new virus measures Tobias Kurth, epidemiologist at the Charite hospital in Berlin told DW that he expects this surging infection trend to continue, and … [Read more...] about Coronavirus: Germany expects rise in deaths as omicron takes hold

Germany hit a new record infection rate on Saturday, with the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases (RKI) recording 497.1 new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days. Saturday's incidence rate — which counts new cases recorded in the seven days leading up to yesterday — surpassed the previous peak of 485.1 reported by the RKI on November 29, 2021. The seven-day incidence reported on Friday was 470.6. The incidence rate was at 335.9 on the previous Saturday. The record incidence rate follows a record number of new cases recorded in a single day on Thursday — over 92,000. The infections recorded on Friday, and reported on Saturday, were down a little, to just over 78,000. The high number of infections are down to the spread of the highly infectious omicron variant of the coronavirus. Omicron becomes prevalent variant Germany has so far avoided the runaway infection rates seen in neighboring countries such as France and Denmark, largely down to the … [Read more...] about Germany: Omicron wave breaks new weekly cases record