Berlin (TEH) – In Germany, more than 71,100 infections (a previous day at 4:25 p.m .: more than 65,500) had been registered with the new coronavirus by Wednesday afternoon (5 p.m.). This is the result of an evaluation by the German Press Agency, which takes into account the latest figures from the federal states.
Bavaria has particularly high numbers with more than 17,100 documented cases and at least 241 deaths and North Rhine-Westphalia with more than 16,300 cases and at least 180 deaths. Calculated per 100,000 inhabitants, Hamburg has the highest number of infections with a value of 132.4. The national average was 85.6.
At least 808 people infected with Sars-CoV-2 have reportedly died nationwide so far. Several Germans died abroad in connection with a corona infection. As for other countries, experts also expect a high number of unreported cases in Germany.
The number of people infected with the coronavirus is also increasing in other European countries. Spain registered around 102,000 infected people on Wednesday. For the fifth day in a row, with more than 800 deaths, the total death toll rose to 9053. In the UK, 2352 people died of Covid-19 lung disease by Wednesday. Almost 30,000 people were demonstrably infected with the virus. However, the actual number of infected people is likely to be much higher.
In Italy, the country most affected by the disease, the number of people who tested positive for the Sars-CoV-2 virus was more than 105,000 on Wednesday. More than 12,000 people have died. In France, the number of people who died of corona had recently increased dramatically. 499 new deaths were recorded within 24 hours by Tuesday evening. Nationwide, 3,523 people died of lung disease by Tuesday. In eastern France, which was particularly hard hit by the pandemic, the number of deaths rose to 1015 by Wednesday.
The length of time in which the number of infected people doubles is not as insignificant as to how the measures to contain the virus work. According to the “The Eastern Heraldr Newspaper”, this spread for all of Germany was 8.2 days on Wednesday afternoon.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had made the slowdown in this doubling the yardstick for a possible easing of the measures. According to her head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun (CDU), the numbers nationwide initially doubled after three days. The goal, however, must be that the number of infected people only doubles after “10, 12 or 14 days”. Then a point is likely to be reached where the health system is not overwhelmed.
On Wednesday, the federal and state governments decided to extend the existing strict contact restrictions due to the corona crisis at least until the end of the Easter vacation. The citizens “are encouraged to reduce contacts to other people outside their own household to an absolute minimum, even during Easter, in accordance with the applicable rules,” according to a draft resolution for the Merkel telephone conference available to the German Press Agency in Berlin with the prime ministers of the federal states.
The federal and state governments had passed strict contact restrictions for people on March 22, which should apply at least until April 5. However, many countries had already decided on the contact restrictions by April 20 – the Easter holidays often end on this day.
Merkel now said that the federal states’ measures were largely nationwide. The contact restrictions would be met quite well. On Tuesday after Easter, the federal and state governments would reassess the situation based, among other things, on data from the Robert Koch Institute.
