Covid Hospitalizations & Restrictions.

I am wondering how we will check on hospitalizations by state - and
therefore restrictions - as our travel time approaches.

The covid-portals published by German newspapers have been updated to include this metric. This is one free one.

Thanks Azra. I bookmarked the link. I see that most of my scheduled trip is in states above 9 hospitalizations per 100K people. Still plenty of time to turn it around for the people in Bayern and Thüringen, for their sakes even more than ours.

We may benefit going April-May as the weather will be warming, favoring outdoor activities and dining. One factor in surges is people spending more time indoors. Makes me wonder if Christmas Markets might be a perpetual problem in Germany just as summer might be a perpetual Problem in the USA South.

Erfurt is beautiful in springtime! Lots of outdoor activities (low risk) and it is a nice city to just walk in. The rules will have changed by April again and COVID will have shifted so I wouldn't make any changes yet. Also consider Bamberg, just 45 mins away on the train.

Please be informed for your own health that RKI, original data provider, adds a warning to "hospitalization incidence":

"The most recent RKI values are underestimates because only hospitalizations are included in which a Corona infection was registered at the local health office in the past seven days.

However, an affected person may not have been ill at all or only mildly ill when the infection is reported and may not have a severe course until seven days later. In addition, there are further reporting and transmission delays. The RKI values for the current reporting date thus represent a minimum indication."

Makes me wonder if Christmas Markets might be a perpetual problem in Germany just as summer might be a perpetual Problem in the USA South.

We wouldn't know, we haven't had Christmas markets since Covid hit - well, a few opened last week, but that's clearly not responsible for the current spike, but rather the weather sending everyone indoors. Since Germans tend to primarily socialize and enjoy life outside in nicer weather, and tend to also travel during that time, this year just like last year we're seeing that spike as soon as the weather gets cold, but it's far worse this year compared to last year due to Delta.

Delta is more contagious but I suspect that the bulk of current transmission is taking place at the workplace and socializing indoors for longer periods of time. We really don't know enough about outdoor spread with Delta to know if the markets are a big factor, but the authorities have decided it's too much of a risk due to the ICU situation

"I suspect that the bulk of current transmission is taking place at the workplace and socializing indoors for longer periods of time. We really don't know enough about outdoor spread with Delta to know if the markets are a big factor..."

I suspect, as you do, that it's an "indoor" phenomenon. And that outdoor "anything" is a smaller contributor to transmission, just as has been true elsewhere. The current surge cannot have been caused by Christmas markets which have only begun to open up in the last couple of days.

So why cancel Christmas markets if they can't be causing the surge and if we THINK outdoors is safer? I suspect that the closings have more to do with the influx of German, European, and international visitors - some from areas with high rates of infection - who will be attracted to Town X by the Christmas markets, but who will ALSO be populating indoor restaurants, hotels, museums and other indoor venues within Town X.

New warnings from the CDC and State Department on travel to Germany (Avoid/Do Not Travel):
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/covid-4/coronavirus-germany
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/germany-travel-advisory.html
also: https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2021/11/23/cdc-level-4-germany-denmark/