Number of the Month: 19.7 million

The number of the month for January - 19.7 million - refers to the number of visits to the doctor due to an acute respiratory infection since the start of the current season, from the 40th week (beginning of October) up to and including the 52nd week, in Germany. The figure comes from the syndromic surveillance for acute respiratory infections (ARI), which the RKI established and expanded years ago and which has also provided important data during the COVID-19 pandemic and made comparisons with the pre-pandemic period possible.
To determine the disease burden at population level, several hundred GP and paediatric practices report the number of patients with acute respiratory infections to the RKI every week and, as a reference value, the number of all patients who have visited the practice in the respective week. In order to assess the ARI activity in Germany, however, several data sources need to be evaluated together, always on Wednesdays in the ARI weekly report.