Status: 07/13/2021 6:57 a.m.
As of today, clinics are required to report more details about corona patients. The Ministry of Health hopes, among other things, to draw conclusions about how well vaccinated people are protected from severe courses.
As of today, clinics are to report more comprehensive data on Covid patients than before. According to the ministry, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) yesterday signed a new ordinance that obliges clinics to provide more details about Covid patients. The regulation comes into force today.
The background is also the debate about parameters for assessing the corona situation and the role of the seven-day incidence. “Since the endangered risk groups are vaccinated, a high incidence does not automatically mean an equally high level of stress in the intensive care beds,” Spahn wrote on Twitter. “The incidence is becoming increasingly less meaningful, we now need more detailed information about the situation in the clinics.”
On the one hand, the regulation provides that in the future all hospital admissions due to Covid must be reported. In addition to the number of intensive care patients, it should become clear how many patients have to be hospitalized in Germany because of Corona. In addition, the clinics should report the age, type of treatment and vaccination status of the patients. According to Spahn, they want to find out who is sick and how well the person is protected. This is the only way to “estimate in real time how high the burden will be on the health system and how well the vaccinations are working”.
More detailed information on vaccination
Recently, however, there was confusion about what exactly the clinics should now do differently than before. The managing director of the German Hospital Society (DKG), Gerald Gaß, told the editorial network Germany that it was “absolutely sensible to also include hospital occupancy in order to assess the dangers of the pandemic and take appropriate practical protective measures”. The DKG pointed out, however, that there are already comprehensive reporting requirements for corona patients. The clinics would have to report suspected illness, illness or death in relation to Covid-19 to the health authorities. In addition, there would be further information about the time or period of the infection and also about the vaccination status.
The Ministry of Health emphasized that it was, among other things, about more detailed information on the vaccination of those affected in order to determine how well completely vaccinated people are really protected from severe courses. Because so far the assumption that the incidence value would lose its informative value due to the vaccinations was only an assumption.