Corona pandemic
Lauterbach worried about inaccurate corona data
Karl Lauterbach speaks during a press conference about the current Corona situation. Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
According to Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, the question about the current spread of the corona virus in Germany is difficult to answer. Because: There is a lack of important data.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) sees the assessment of the pandemic situation in Germany currently made more difficult by inaccurate data.
Especially the dynamics of the new Coronavirus variant Omikron is “not correctly shown in the official figures because of the test failures and reporting delays,” said Lauterbach of the “Bild” newspaper. “I am currently using the RKI and numerous data sources from all over Germany to get an overall picture of the situation.”
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), there will also be delays in the transfer of data this year due to the holidays. There is also less testing. According to the newspaper, Lauterbach wants to get the health authorities to quickly ramp up the capacities for tests and contact follow-up.
Within one day, the number of reliably proven and probable Omikron cases in Germany that were transmitted to the RKI had risen sharply – by 45 percent compared to the previous day. The RKI announced on Tuesday. For the current week, the institute expects a “high number of new and late registrations”. In Germany, only a small part of the positive test samples are examined for variants.