German New Virus Cases in Check, Infection Rate Holds Below 1.0

(Bloomberg) --

Germany’s new coronavirus cases remained in check and the infection rate held below the key threshold of 1.0.

• There were 169 new cases in the 24 hours through Thursday morning, bringing the total to 186,691 according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That compares with almost 7,000 at the peak of the pandemic in late March.
• Fatalities increased by 20 to a total of 8,772. The daily death toll has remained well below 100 since mid-May.
• The reproduction factor of the virus, known as R-naught, was at 0.88 on Thursday, compared with 0.86 the day before, according to a daily report by the Robert Koch 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 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 0.99 on Thursday, up from 0.86 the previous day.

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