The development of the corona situation in Germany with the increase in the omicron subvariant BA.5 has not come as a surprise to the virologist Christian Drosten. “The expectations I expressed at the beginning of spring have been confirmed. We are not experiencing an infection-free summer this year, but this is not initially a threat, ”said the head of the Charité Virology Institute in Berlin at the request of the German Press Agency.

The virologist continues to write that he is “somewhat concerned” about the development in Portugal, where not only the incidence but also the number of deaths has increased. “There are no obvious explanations for this, because other European countries also have BA.5 increases without an increase in lethality.” For more clarity, one has to wait a little longer: “In a month we will know whether something similar is also happening to us .”

In Germany, the nationwide seven-day incidence is 276.9 according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Thursday. The day before, the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week was 238.1 (previous week: 221.4; previous month: 499.2). However, the incidence does not provide a complete picture of the infection situation.