Robert Koch Institute

On Wednesday, the number of Covid-19 vaccinations in Germany reached a new high: 656,357 doses were administered according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) - 290,000 more than the previous day. This means that around 11.5 million citizens have now received at least one vaccination against Covid-19. 4.7 million people - and thus 5.7 percent of the population - are now fully vaccinated.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and German state leaders have agreed on an even stricter shutdown over the Easter holidays. From April 1 to April 5, over the Easter holiday period, shops, including grocery stores, will largely have to close.

Tuesday's announcement marks a reversal from earlier this month when state leaders agreed to begin a cautious reopening process.

According to Germany's Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases (RKI), the seven-day incidence rate stood at 107 on Monday, above the 100 threshold at which hospitals often become overwhelmed.

The number of coronavirus cases in Germany grew 20% in the past week, as lockdown restrictions are gradually eased, an expert at the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases (RKI) said Tuesday.

RKI epidemiologist Dirk Brockmann told German broadcaster ARD that the loosening of measures was particularly unhelpful given the exponential growth of the British virus variant B117. And since they're also combined with descriptive terms, the possibilities of creating new words are endless: "hard" and "light" were the most popular, but "yo-yo," referring to ever-changing lockdown rules, was another one, as well as "Flockdown," when heavy snow ("Flocken"=flakes) keeps everyone inside anyway.

The German Standing Commission on Vaccination (Stiko) at the Robert Koch Institute now recommends AstraZeneca's vaccine for people older than 65. The Ministry of Health confirmed the change in a statement. The interval between the two vaccination doses is also to be extended.

More than 50,000 people in Germany have died in connection with the coronavirus since the pandemic began. The German health authorities reported 859 new deaths within 24 hours to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), bringing the total number of deaths to 50,642.

After the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced it would issue its decision on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 21, German Health Minister Jens Spahn, speaking at a joint press conference with the Robert Koch Institute, the government agency responsible for disease control and prevention, said the report was "good news."

A fortnight ago, BioNTech and Pfizer submitted an application to the EMA for conditional marketing authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine. President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen tweeted that she welcomed the EMA's decision to bring the meeting forward.

The number of patients treated in intensive care units in Germany for Covid-19 has reached the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic. In Germany, health authorities have reported 410 new coronavirus-related deaths to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) within 24 hours. The total number of deaths rose to 14,771, with the highest level ever reached in mid-April with 315 reported deaths within one day.

The Robert Koch Institute reports a new peak in new corona infections: 19,990 cases were added within one day.

According to the RKI management report, the reproduction figure was 0.81 in Germany on Wednesday (previous day: 0.94). The RKI also stated that processing times are increasing as well as the number of samples is still growing.

Germany has increased the number of conducted Covid-19 tests over the past weeks, partly due to compulsory testing of returning travelers from risk areas.

According to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in calendar week 31 a total of 578,000 Covid-19 tests had been conducted, in calendar week 32 the number had gotten up to 875,000 Covid-19 tests.

Out of the 250 registered laboratories that process Covid-19 tests, 41 laboratories had mentioned delivery problems for reagents.

According to the RKI, some products are highly dependent on individual manufacturers. In addition consumables, and reagents are only stored for short periods of time in the laboratories, among other reasons because of limited shelf life.

Susanne Johna, the president of the German doctors union, warned that Germany is already facing a second Covid-19 wave. The daily confirmed cases in the country have increased in recent weeks, and the Marburger Bund warns that loose adherence to hygiene and social distancing rules could spur a widespread wave of new infections. 

In an interview to the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper, Johna stated: "There is a danger that we will lose the successes that we have achieved in Germany so far in a combination of repression and longing for normality,".

According to the Robert Kock Institute, Germany had 879 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, August 4.

Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute has said that negligence is to blame for an increase in cases. Over the last seven days, Germany has registered a daily average of 557 cases, compared to around 350 in early June. The number of new infections nearly doubled to 633 on Tuesday, up from 340 on Monday.

Tuesday, during his first press conference in weeks, Wieler said: "The rise has to do with the fact that we have become negligent.". He also asked people for the first time to wear a mask outdoors if they cannot maintain a physical distance of at least 1.5 metres.

Germany's coronavirus reproduction rate has jumped to 2.88 on Sunday. The "R" number estimates how many people an infected person passes the virus to, and a value of less than one is needed to control the spread of the disease.

Numbers released by the Robert Koch Institute shown the average four-day reproduction rate jumped from 1.79 on Saturday, to 2.88. The 7-day 'R' value also increased from 1.55 on Saturday to 2.03 on Sunday.

According to the RKI, the increase was mainly due to local outbreaks in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where more than 1,300 workers at a meat-processing plant tested positive to Covid-19.

Corona-Warn-App, the German Covid-19 contract tracing app by the Robert Koch-Institut, allegedly cost 20 million euros to develop, according to AP News. The presumed monthly costs are between 2.5 and 3.5 million euros, which includes manual tracing.

The latest Covid-19 numbers from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) released on Monday shows that the coronavirus reproduction rate in Germany is 1.07, down slightly from 1.13 on Sunday. It was 0.83 on Friday and 1.1 on Saturday.

According to the TKI, the current number is also influenced by large spikes in concentrated areas, and may not represent the situation for the whole country.