German Infection Rate Ticks Up as Covid-19 Tracing App Goes Live

(Bloomberg) --

Germany’s coronavirus infection rate climbed further above the key threshold of 1.0, as citizens began downloading a voluntary app developed by the government to help trace Covid-19 infections.

• The reproduction factor of the virus, known as R-naught, was at 1.19 on Monday, compared with 1.05 the day before, according to the latest daily report by the Robert Koch Institute. This means that 10 people with the virus are estimated to infect just under 12 others.
• The government is trying to keep the figure below 1.0 to prevent exponential growth in the number of cases and a second wave of infections.
• There were 164 new infections in the 24 hours through Tuesday morning, bringing the total to 187,682 according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That compares with 251 the previous day and almost 7,000 at the peak of the pandemic in late March.
• Fatalities increased by six to 8,807. The daily death toll has stayed well below 100 since mid-May.
• The R-0 number represents the course of infection approximately one to two weeks ago and is sensitive to short-term changes, such as local outbreaks, especially if the number of new cases is relatively low, according to the health institute.
• The RKI also provides a seven-day R-value, which compensates for fluctuations. That value was 0.95 on Monday, down from 1.0 the previous day.
• NOTE: Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, Health Minister Jens Spahn, Chancellery Minister Helge Braun, RKI President Lothar Wieler and executives from Deutsche Telekom AG and SAP AG will hold a news conference later on Tuesday to present the new app.

• Read more: Germany Moves to Secure Stake in Virus Vaccine Developer

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