Germany recorded biggest increase in COVID-19 cases in two months

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Germany increased from 17,504 to 2,612,268, the biggest daily increase since January 22data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed Thursday.

The number of reported deaths increased by 227, to 74,132, while the number of new cases per 100,000 people in seven days (weekly incidence) increased to 90, compared to 86 a day earlier. This figure is used by the government to decide on the opening and authorizations of new businesses or on a possible tightening of controls.

The peak incidence was recorded on December 22 with 197.6 and on January 28 it fell below 100 for the first time in three months with a downward trend that continued for a few weeks. The maximum number of infections occurred on December 18 with 33,777 new infections in one day and the maximum number of deaths on January 14 with 1,244.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was due to hold a virtual meeting with heads of government of federal states on Wednesday to discuss the vaccination campaign and the inclusion of family doctors in the process, but the meeting was postponed to the European Agency drugs (EMA). makes a decision regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Germany on Monday suspended preventive vaccination with the AstraZeneca preparation based on the recommendation of the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), which is competent in the matter, after having recorded several cases of thrombosis in people who had received it in Europe, including seven in Germany – with three deaths – among the 1.6 million who received this vaccine.

For its part, the government’s economic advisory council has predicted that the country will grow 3.1% this year if it avoids the third wave of the pandemic, a downward revision of six tenths from its last projection. .

For economist Volker Wieland, the “big risk” is that a “third wave” materializes which “could slow down the recovery” of the German economy. However, he said, the repercussions would only be “serious” at the macroeconomic level if the resulting restrictions affect the country’s powerful industrial sector, as happened last spring. Current measures mainly restrict trade and services.

In fact, argued economist Monika Schnitzer, the recovery in the German economy is largely based on rebounding international demand for the industrial sector, which offsets the contraction in trade and services.

(With information from Reuters and EFE)

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