Status: 07/29/2021 9:27 a.m.
What are the consequences of the increasing incidence? The RKI and the Ministry of Health have different opinions on this. Intensive care physicians criticize the reluctance of politicians to act.
In the debate about the importance of incidence as a benchmark in the pandemic, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn contradicted the head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler. “As the vaccination rate increases, the incidence becomes less meaningful,” Spahn told the “Bild” newspaper. Therefore, it is “imperative to need further key figures in order to evaluate the situation”, such as the number of newly admitted Covid patients in the hospital. He had said that similarly before.
However, Spahn does not want to do without the incidence entirely. Not enough people in Germany have been vaccinated for this.
Wieler had called for a low-incidence strategy in a federal-state switch and warned against a fourth wave. Plans from the RKI to also consider other criteria for the corona policy did not play a role in his lecture, according to “Bild”. Instead, Wieler insisted that the incidence remains “important for assessing the situation in Germany and initiating control measures at an early stage”.
“We would like to see action taken more clearly”
The intensive care doctor Uwe Janssens accuses politicians of acting too hesitantly in curbing the fourth wave of corona. “Actually we would like to see more clear action,” said the General Secretary of the Society for Internal Intensive Care Medicine (DGIIN) in joint morning magazine from ARD and ZDF. “Last year we saw the consequences of waiting and doing nothing. It seems to be repeating itself.”
Janssens pointed to Great Britain, where it can be observed how the increase in the number of infections is leading to more hospital admissions and ventilation even for young people. If there are again many infected people, it will also have an impact on the economy.
In the political dispute over the future status of incidence, he said that it would remain an important factor in assessing the situation. It must be considered together with the number of hospital admissions and the utilization of intensive care beds. In Germany, however, there is still too little detailed information in some cases due to data protection.
3520 new infections – incidence rises to 16
The seven-day incidence had risen significantly over the past three weeks. According to the RKI, it is currently 16.0 – the previous day the value was 15.0 and the most recent low on July 6th was 4.9.
The health authorities in Germany recently reported 3520 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. A week ago the value was 1890 infections.
Ten deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 42 deaths. The number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 91,702.