Status: 12/24/2021 9:37 a.m.
Health experts fear that the corona numbers will fly blind because of the holidays. With regard to Omikron, this is a dangerous ignorance. Especially since the health authorities also capitulate with the follow-up.
Health experts have criticized the incomplete recording of the corona infection numbers at the end of the year. “It is completely incomprehensible to me why we still have unclear data on every weekend, as well as on public holidays,” said the President of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, of “Welt”. With a view to Omikron, one should have positioned oneself differently here too.
Wrong interpretation of the numbers?
“We’re not up to date,” said Montgomery. “The data that we will receive in the next few weeks should open the door to a wide variety of interpretations. Including many false ones.”
Montgomery is likely to have its eye on the next federal-state conference, which is planned for January 7th and at which possible further tightening due to the Omikron variant should be discussed. For this, however, reliable data would have to be available.
The head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, had already pointed out an incomplete picture to be expected on Wednesday. In a note on the daily number of cases, the RKI now says:
During the holidays and at the turn of the year, when interpreting the number of cases, it should be noted that less testing and reporting activity is to be expected.
A “false security”
The head of the Berlin health research institute IGES, Bertram Häussler, also shared the concerns: On the day before Christmas Eve, “we get the last valid data before the country sinks into ignorance for three weeks,” he told the “Welt”. After almost two years of pandemic, a “similarly nebulous reporting situation” continues to prevail, and this is regularly the case on weekends. Only the blind flight will not last two to three days at the end of the year, but several weeks. But Omikron is not taking a Christmas break.
The health policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Tino Sorge, also spoke of “false security”. FDP politician Andrew Ullmann agreed that the poor data situation due to delays in reporting had “unfortunately been accepted as unchangeable for almost two years”. In contrast to the previous holidays, test and vaccination centers are open in many places this time. “The delay in reporting is thereby somewhat weakened.”
Health departments over the limit
According to the head of the association of medical officers, Ute Teichert, not only the health authorities are responsible for the inadequate data situation between the years.
The health authorities are not only unable to keep up with reporting current figures. Due to overload and staff shortages, a large number of the offices have stopped tracking contacts and quarantined people infected with corona. “Comprehensive follow-up is almost not taking place at the moment,” said Teichert to the editorial network in Germany. Several countries have even completely suspended the search for contact persons, for example Baden-Württemberg, Berlin and Hamburg.
Green health politician Janosch Dahmen warned of the lack of contact tracking, especially with the Omikron variant. “It can spread rapidly without you noticing it in time,” he told the RND. “If we do not notice early on that the actual number of cases is increasing, politicians cannot respond appropriately.”
Seven-day incidence is falling
The health authorities have been reporting falling case numbers and incidences to the RKI for days. 35,431 new corona infections were currently registered. The nationwide seven-day incidence fell to 265.8. For comparison: the previous day the value was 280.3. A week ago the nationwide incidence was 331.8 (previous month: 404.5).
370 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 437. The RKI counted 6,959,067 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections are not recognized.
Omikron in all federal states
In the meantime, more and more infections in all federal states are with the Omikron variant of the coronavirus. Even if the majority of infections are still caused by the delta variant of the coronavirus, the number of detected omicron cases has increased significantly in recent weeks, writes the RKI in its current weekly report.
Saxony wants more competencies for the federal states
In view of the spread of this highly contagious virus variant, representatives of the federal states called for faster action from the federal government. Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) spoke out in the “Rheinische Post” in favor of bringing forward the next Prime Minister’s Conference, which had been planned for January 7th. In addition, the Bundestag should again resolve the epidemic situation of national scope. Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer called for more room for maneuver for the federal states. “We don’t have the time to have to wait until the Bundestag meets again and changes the Infection Protection Act,” he told the Düsseldorf newspaper “Rheinische Post”.
The current legal situation allows the states to tighten a large number of the corona measures on their own at any time.
Corona: Incidence value continues to fall – scientists and RKI warn
Anja Günther, ARD Berlin, December 24th, 2021 10:00 a.m.