A generationIn the debate about using morbidity as the main benchmark for the pandemic, the Federal Minister of Health Jens Spann (CDU) Contradicted with Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute. “As the vaccination rate increases, the incidence rate loses its informative value,” Spann told Bild. Therefore, “further key data is urgently needed to assess the situation”, such as the number of newly admitted Covid patients in the hospital.
However, Spahn doesn’t want to be completely free of morbidity: In Germany, there are not enough people vaccinated to “can ignore morbidity at all.” RKI boss Cyclist On Monday, a low-incidence strategy was required in federal state transitions, and the fourth wave was warned.
Berlin and Rhineland-Palatinate call for the establishment of a corona traffic light system
Plan from RKIAccording to Bild, other criteria for considering the new crown policy did not play a role in his speech. On the contrary, Weiler insisted that the incident “is still important for assessing the situation in Germany and for early initiation of control measures.”
Many countries also support the debate on new indicators for assessing the pandemic. In the newspaper of the German Editing Network (RND), Berlin and the Rhineland-Palatinate states expressed their support for a nationwide corona traffic light system that takes into account the 7-day morbidity rate and hospital occupancy rate.
The Minister of the Rhineland-Palatinate State said: “There is currently a nationwide debate about whether to use the incidence rate as a decisive measure, which should quickly lead to national supervision.” Maru Dreyer (SPD) RND. With vaccination protection, morbidity now has a much smaller impact on disease risk and the possible burden on the health system. “This is why the federal states must submit new warning values to the federal government,” Dreyer demanded.
As already discussed, a traffic light system that includes the incidence of hospitalization can serve as the basis for this. This correlates the number of infections with the number of patients in the hospital, thus providing a good positioning. Dreyer said: “On this basis, we can quickly formulate a new warning value, indicating that the degree of risk in the entire society is understandable.”
Mayor of Berlin Michael MüllerSocial Democratic Party) Think it is useful to add other factors to the incidence. “In Berlin, we have a system with Corona traffic lights. It can record not only the incidence, but also other indicators, such as the occupancy rate of intensive care beds. I think this is the way to go,” he told RND.
The Liberal Democratic Party and left-wing lawmakers called for amendments to the Infection Protection Act so that in addition to morbidity, other factors can be used as the basis for future corona measures. Michael ThielAs he told the “world”, the FDP parliamentary group vice chairman of the Bundestag hopes to amend the Infection Protection Act “as soon as possible.” “Putting any specific numbers that may be out of date next week in the room will not help,” Theurer said, referring to the coalition’s proposal for new morbidity limits.
Health Secretary Spann should try to introduce a “dynamic factor”-including, for example, vaccination quotas, available hospital beds, and the capacity of health authorities. This factor should then be multiplied by the incidence rate. Achim Kessler, the health policy spokesperson for the left-wing parliamentary group, called for the decision to amend the Infection Protection Act to “emergency return to the Bundestag.”
