This means that since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, 181,482 people in Germany have been demonstrably infected with Sars-CoV-2 (data as of midnight on 31 May). The RKI would like to point out that due to quality checks, there may still be changes in the daily updated data. In addition, the number of new cases could also contain errors for technical reasons.

According to RKI data, 8,500 people infected with the virus have died in Germany so far, which means that the number of reported deaths has risen by 11 within 24 hours. According to RKI estimates, around 165,200 people have survived the infection, 400 more than the previous day.

According to the latest information from the Robert Koch Institute, the reproduction rate, or R-value for short, was 1.04 on Sunday (data as of midnight on 31 May; previous day: 1.03). This means that on average, one infected person infects about one other person. The R-value reflects the rate of infection spread about one and a half weeks previously.

The RKI also said that the current R-value is sensitive to short-term changes in the number of cases, such as those caused by individual outbreaks. “This can lead to relatively large fluctuations, especially when the total number of new cases is lower”.

Since the middle of May, the RKI has additionally provided a so-called 7-day R value. This covers a longer period and is therefore less subject to daily fluctuations. According to RKI estimates, this value (data status midnight on 31 May) was 0.90 (previous day: 0.95). This represents the occurrence of infection 8 to 16 days ago.

(Original text; dpa, translation John Chandler)