Status: 02/01/2022 05:21 a.m
The seven-day incidence has again reached a high. According to the RKI, the value rose to 1206.2. The health authorities reported 162,613 new infections. There are more and more voices after a postponement of compulsory vaccination in nursing.
The seven-day incidence of new corona infections in Germany has reached another high. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), it is now 1206.2 nationwide. The previous day the value was 1176.8, a week ago it was 894.3. The incidence quantifies the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants over a period of seven days.
As the RKI announced, citing data from the health authorities, the number of new infections registered within 24 hours was 162,613 – after 78,318 the day before and 126,955 in the previous week. A further 188 deaths were recorded. This brought the total number of registered deaths related to the coronavirus to 117,974.
Many cases probably not recorded
Experts assume that there will be a high and increasing number of cases that are not recorded in the RKI data, partly because testing capacities and health authorities are at their limits in many places. In addition, some cities and districts have been reporting problems with the transmission of the number of corona cases for days.
At the moment, the RKI has to regularly correct the morning numbers for the current and the previous days upwards, in some cases very significantly.
Almost ten million infections
According to the RKI, the health authorities have recorded a total of 9,978,146 cases of infection since the beginning of the pandemic. The RKI puts the number of recovered people in Germany at around 7,705,000.
In November, the federal and state governments had defined the so-called hospitalization incidence as the decisive benchmark for tightening or relaxing the corona measures. This value indicates how many people per 100,000 inhabitants are hospitalized within seven days because of a corona infection. According to the RKI, the hospitalization incidence nationwide was 4.64.
Patient advocates are calling for the vaccination requirement to be postponed
Meanwhile, the calls for a postponement of the corona vaccination requirement for employees in clinics and nursing homes are getting louder. “The obligation to vaccinate for medical and nursing professions must not be introduced with a crowbar,” said Eugen Brysch, the board member of the Patient Protection Foundation, of the dpa news agency. Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach must take local concerns seriously. “Health authorities, regulatory authorities and employers are unable to implement the mammoth work by March 15 without serious upheaval,” said Brysch.
Lauterbach must know that the care of up to 200,000 people in need of care and the sick is in danger. “A delay is urgently needed.”
The law passed by the Bundestag and Bundesrat stipulates that employees in facilities with vulnerable people such as nursing homes and clinics must prove by March 15 that they have been vaccinated against Corona or have recovered from an infection – or submit a certificate that they will not be vaccinated be able. Employers must inform the health authorities if this does not happen.
Offices see themselves overwhelmed with control
However, the health authorities feel overwhelmed with the control. It is expected that on average five to ten percent of the employees will have no clear proof or no complete vaccination protection and a report will be sent to the health department, said Elke Bruns-Philipps, deputy chairwoman of the Federal Association of Doctors in the Public Health Service, the “Rheinische Post”. “This is a significant burden with the examination of each individual case, as is now planned, which the health authorities cannot cope with in a timely manner,” she said. “In principle, a procedure is planned with the health department setting a new deadline for the submission of vaccination documents and a hearing.”
The employees are allowed to continue working for the time being. The health department decides “on how to proceed and the measures to be taken at its discretion,” a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health told Business Insider.
DKG boss for extension of deadline
The CEO of the German Hospital Society (DKG), Gerald Gass, suggested extending the deadline. “We support facility-related compulsory vaccination. However, essential questions regarding further implementation are still unresolved, and it may therefore be necessary to adjust deadlines in the process,” he told the “Rheinische Post”.
If the health department issues a ban on entering the workplace for an unvaccinated person, the person concerned will be released from work, of course without continued payment of wages. But: “If individuals have already received their first vaccination, the further vaccinations can be made up for quickly. In these cases, we can imagine pragmatic solutions, such as an extension of the deadline, in order to keep the employees.”