Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Patchy data is a concern
Lauterbach warns of invisible “omicron dynamics”
In several European countries, Omikron is already the dominant variant among new corona infections. The situation in Germany is difficult to assess because of the test failures and reporting delays. Federal Health Minister Lauterbach is therefore alarmed.
The holidays pose a problem for the fight against pandemics in Germany: Health authorities and test centers are sparsely staffed, which is why no reliable data on new corona infections can be collected. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach is making this unsafe situation nervous. Lauterbach told the newspaper “Bild” that he recognized “an omicron dynamic” that “worries him very much” and that “is not correctly reflected in the official figures.”
In its daily reports on the corona situation in Germany, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has repeatedly pointed out in the past few days that less test and reporting activity can be expected during the holidays and at the turn of the year. Therefore, the officially reported number of cases could only show an incomplete picture of the corona situation in Germany.
The officially reported seven-day incidence decreased daily to 215.6 most recently that Tuesday morning. For comparison: the day before the nationwide incidence was 222.7, a week ago it was 306.4 (previous month: 452.2).
Lauterbach fears that the appearance of falling incidences is deceptive. Now he is trying to collect missing data from all over Germany in order to be able to assess the situation better, reports the “Bild”. He is apparently also supposed to put pressure on the responsible authorities in the districts, which have been negligent in testing, reporting and tracing contacts over the Christmas holidays.
The number of detected Omicron cases is increasing
Current data from the RKI indicate that the Omikron wave could now roll over Germany: Within one day, the number of reliably proven and probable Omikron cases sent to the institute rose sharply. 10,443 cases would now be assigned to the new Corona variant, 45 percent more than the previous day, according to an RKI overview page this Tuesday (data as of December 28). The number refers to all cases that were detected from the 46th calendar week, which begins on November 15th. Most of the records come from the previous week (6257) (previous week: 2904).
Several experts warned of the high risk of infection from the variant, including RKI boss Lothar Wieler. “The outbreaks at Omikron are impressive. A lot of people who are in a room with an infected person can become infected. A lot of them also get sick,” he told the editorial network Germany (RND). The Omikron variant is currently spreading rapidly in Europe. In several countries it is already the dominant variant for new infections.