Is it the breather in the fight against the coronavirus after the incidence figures have fallen again across Bavaria? Or is it the calm before the next storm brewing under the name of Omikron? You are currently looking in vain for a clear answer to these questions: the numbers in the Divi Intensive Care Register indicate the daily occupancy of the intensive care units, especially with Covid patients, that the situation at the Bavarian hospitals has eased slightly. But there can be no question of the all-clear.
“The current figures are deceptive for two reasons,” says Corona expert Clemens Wendtner, chief physician at the Munich Clinic Schwabing, the German press agency. “On the one hand, you have to ask how reliable they are, also because people are less likely to be tested and there is an unreported number. On the other hand, there is the risk that you will draw the conclusion from them: Everything is great, we can relax over the holidays , We deserve it.”
In fact, according to the Bavarian Ministry of Health, there are no districts or urban districts that meet the requirements for a regional hotspot lockdown. A district with a seven-day incidence of more than 1,000 per 100,000 inhabitants is considered to be such. Just a few weeks ago, this applied to practically the entire south-east of the Free State. The seven-day incidence now averages just under 290 in all seven government districts.
The situation in the intensive care units of the hospitals also appears to be easing. The State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) reported – as of Monday 12.15 p.m. – an occupancy of 881 intensive care beds across Bavaria due to confirmed Covid-19 cases. A decrease compared to the previous week by 13.8 percent. The number of Covid 19 patients who are cared for in other hospital wards also decreased: According to the LGL, it fell by 18.6 percent to 3382. Nonetheless, people are still dying as a result of the virus infection: the state office has so far recorded 19 035 deaths in the Free State, of which 25 were added on Monday alone.
What is noticeable when looking at the statistics: Even if the incidence has again strayed relatively far from its maximum values, this positive development has apparently not yet found any noticeable impact in clinical operations. The Divi intensive care register for Monday shows 401 more free beds in the intensive care units than in the past few days. But compared to spring, when about 1,500 to 1,700 free intensive care beds were available from mid-April to mid-May, one cannot yet speak of sustainable recovery.
That is how Markus Söder sees it. The fact that the numbers are falling in Bavaria is “a good intermediate step,” but “Corona won’t let us go,” said the Prime Minister on Monday after a video from the CSU party executive. “The delta wave is flattening out, that’s why Omikron is just around the corner.” He demanded “clear text” from the federal government on how to proceed in the pandemic and to restore the epidemic situation of national importance. With possible new anti-corona measures, Bavaria will “not rush ahead,” said Söder. The Free State will, however, support the measures that the federal and state governments decide together.