the Number of people sent to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) transmitted securely proven and probable Omikron cases in Germany rose again significantly. 13,129 cases would now be assigned to the new Corona variant, 26 percent more than the previous day, according to an RKI overview page on Wednesday (data as of December 29). The number refers to cases in November and December, most of the evidence comes from the previous week with 7632 (previous week: 3040).
The increase indicates with relative certainty that Omikron has an ever larger share in the infection process in Germany, said the modeler Dirk Brockmann from the Humboldt University Berlin of the German press agency. In northern German cities such as Hamburg and Bremen, the variant already plays a major role. One should not be lulled into a false sense of security from the data on the occurrence of infections, which are currently only partially meaningful due to fewer tests and reports, the development in other countries is impressive evidence of this. “It can suddenly start very quickly and then very strongly.”
A graph from the RKI showing the development over time shows a steep increase in the numbers reported weekly in connection with Omikron. For the current week, the RKI expects a “high number of new and late registrations”. According to the RKI, the information relates to evidence based on complete genetic analyzes as well as laboratory diagnostic suspicions based on variant-specific PCR tests. In Germany only a small part of the positive samples are examined for variants.