The social distancing measures introduced to curb the spread of coronavirus are having a demonstrable effect, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has said. 

Coronavirus infection rate in Germany slowing

According to RKI president Lothar Wieler, for the past few days in Germany, each person with coronavirus has only infected one other person, on average. A few weeks ago, each infected person was infecting between five and seven others. This shows that the rate of infection has slowed significantly, primarily as a result of social distancing measures. 

“We are seeing that the spread of the virus is getting slower… It’s working,” said Wieler. However, he also stressed that the data was no reason to sound the all-clear, and that restrictions needed to be maintained to allow the positive trend to continue: the pandemic will only subside when each infected person infects fewer than one person, on average. 

Death rate expected to rise in the coming weeks

Wielar also warned that the number of coronavirus infections and deaths would continue to increase over the coming weeks. As expected, the coronavirus death rate in Germany rose over the past few days - from 0,8 to above 1,2 percent. “We must assume that more people will die and that this rate will continue to rise,” Wieler said. 

With an increasing number of cases being reported in nursing homes and old people’s homes in Germany, the average age of those infected has now risen to 48 years, according to RKI data. Men and women are almost equally affected. The average age of those who have died from COVID-19 is exactly 80 years old.

The government has previously expressed that a relaxation of the restrictions will not be considered until the number of infections only doubles every 10 to 14 days. Wieler said that he assumes the measures will be relaxed gradually: “I do not assume that everything will be reopened all at once.”