German New Cases Rise, Infection Rate Holds Below Key Threshold

(Bloomberg) -- Germany recorded a jump in new coronavirus cases, though the number remained far below the level at the height of the outbreak and the latest infection rate was unchanged.

• There were 1,213 new infections in the 24 hours through Friday morning, bringing the total to 189,817 according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That compares with 352 the previous day and almost 7,000 at the peak of the pandemic in late March.
• Fatalities increased by 24 to 8,875. The daily death toll has stayed well below 100 since mid-May.
• The reproduction factor of the virus was unchanged at 0.86 on Thursday, according to the latest daily report by the Robert Koch Institute.
• The reproduction number -- estimated using a four-day moving average of the number of new cases -- represents the course of infection approximately one to two weeks ago. It’s 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 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.
• The RKI also provides a seven-day R-value, which compensates for fluctuations. That value was 1.00 on Thursday, up from 0.89 the previous day.
• NOTE: On Wednesday, a meatpacking plant in the western German city of Guetersloh was ordered to shut after hundreds of workers became infected by the disease, adding to a string of outbreaks at slaughterhouses across Europe.

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