When transmitting the infection numbers to schools, the ministries of culture give percentages instead of incidences. The risk of infection thus appears less threatening than it really is.
Two weeks after the summer vacation, the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs in Baden-Württemberg draws a first balance: According to this, 0.03 percent of all students were. The ministry in. Less than 0.4 percent of all students are said to have been infected there. At first glance, the numbers offer little cause for concern, but they are nevertheless food for thought. Because instead of, as has been customary since the beginning of the pandemic, the education ministries of the federal states do not work with incidences, but with percentages. Both values mean the same thing, but the percentages make the risk of infection in schools appear to be much lower than it actually is.
Incidences up to 600
There is no nationwide incidence among schoolchildren, as the spokesman for the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) points out stern-Inquiry notifies. However, one from the Max Planck Institute shows that the infections are more dramatic than the data from the ministries would lead you to believe. In Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, the incidence among schoolchildren is highest nationwide. Depending on the district, it is between 100 and 300. In Wuppertal, the incidence is just under 600.
Data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) also show an upward trend in infections. “”The number of school breakouts reported has been increasing again since the beginning of August 2021 “, it says in. Children between the ages of six and 14 are particularly affected.
How the portal citing data from the School supervision in the Supervision and Service Directorate (ADD) reported that a little more than 2000 schoolchildren in Rhineland-Palatinate had been infected by last Sunday. 707 schools had also reported one or more cases of infection. According to this, every second facility is already affected by infections among schoolchildren and teachers.
Schools rarely have reasons for being sick
According to the spokesman for the Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture, 369 schoolchildren and 40 employees were infected in the first two weeks after the start of school. He told the portal: “Overall, it can be stated that the level of infection in schools in Lower Saxony is currently at a pleasantly low level.” According to the overview map, the incidence in the group is over 100.
According to KMK spokesman Andreas Schmitz, the fact that the education ministries do not report any incidences is due to the fact that schools often only have a sick note, “without any indication of a Covid-19 infection.” In some federal states, data protection forbids asking students and parents about the reasons for reporting sickness.
