The city of Bonn commented on Tuesday afternoon on the sharp rise in incidence in the city. The value had jumped from 531.5 on Monday to 744.5 on Tuesday. Younger people in Bonn are particularly affected. The incidence for 20- to 39-year-olds is 1004.2, and for the group up to 19 years old, the city gives a value of 1222.7 with reference to the State Centre for Health. For those aged 40 to 59, the incidence is 610.5; for those aged 60 to 79, 214.8; and for those over 80, 73.1. "The Federal City has a young population that typically has a lot of contact with each other," the city informs. People infected with the Omikron variant also infect numerous close contacts. The Omikron variant apparently often runs a very mild course, especially after vaccination.

 "The very clear increase in incidence is a sign that Omikron is about to become endemic," says Susanne Engels, head of the municipal health department. Endemic means that the virus will become "native" in the medium term and that the immune system of most people will then have already come into contact with Sars-Cov-2 through infection and/or vaccination. According to the health department, the increase in incidence is also "due to the intensive testing in schools and day-care centres, in the more than 350 testing centres as well as in doctors' practices" throughout the city. 

 Due to the situation, the city of Bonn continues to strongly recommend getting vaccinated or boostered. In addition, the health department appeals to the public to continue to observe the current corona protection measures. Above all, the consistent wearing of FFP2 masks is a highly effective protection against infection.

 In the meantime, the health department has further restricted contact tracing, which has already been prioritised since before Christmas in accordance with the guidelines of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). At present, it is mainly carried out in hospitals and in vulnerable groups of people such as senior citizens' facilities. 

The seven-day incidence of new infections in North Rhine-Westphalia has risen significantly again. According to data from the Robert Koch Institute, the value on Tuesday was 543.7 after 504.8 the previous day. The incidence was thus only slightly below the nationwide incidence value of 553.2. The health offices reported 18,411 new infections within 24 hours - more than twice as many as on Monday. Thirty-one other deaths linked to Covid-19 were added. Omicron is now also the dominant coronavirus variant in North Rhine-Westphalia. Wuppertal had the highest incidence value with 953.5, followed by Leverkusen (867.6) and Krefeld (838). The lowest values were recorded in Recklinghausen (203.1) and the Rhine district of Neuss (272.1). 

Contrary to previous fears, the introduction of compulsory vaccination has not yet led to an increase in the number of medical staff quitting their jobs. "At the moment, we have not received any reports from the hospitals about possible dismissals due to the compulsory vaccination that will come into effect on 15 March," said Gerald Gaß, chairman of the board of the German Hospital Association. Gaß explained that the vaccination rate in hospitals nationwide was very high at more than 90 percent. However, there are regional differences. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that "problems may arise at individual locations". According to Gaß, the hospital owners are doing everything they can to raise awareness and provide information in order to convince as many employees as possible to be vaccinated.

Original text: dpa/ga

Translation: Mareike Graepel