“It cannot be that the Robert Koch Institute is sitting on all of these data, not making any new suggestions and we are still only talking about the incidences.” The head of the German Hospital Association criticized the RKI with clear words.
The German Hospital Society (DKG) is calling for a move away from the seven-day incidence of new corona infections as a relevant benchmark in the pandemic. “Politicians must finally act and define a mix of indicators,” said DKG boss Gerald Gaß to the editorial network Germany (RND, Saturday editions). “It cannot be that the Robert Koch Institute is sitting on all of these data, not making any new suggestions and we are still only talking about the incidences.”
Federal and state politicians from various parties had recently spoken out against incidence as the main benchmark. Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) referred in particular to the now high vaccination rate. A higher incidence then does not lead to an overload of the health system so quickly. SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz has also spoken out against a pure fixation on the incidence of fighting the corona pandemic. “Many experts rightly point out that, in addition to the incidences, we also have to keep an eye on the situation in hospitals and intensive care units,” said the finance minister to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Saturday). “The number of infections is rising again, we have to deal with it. But it is a big difference to winter and spring because so many are now vaccinated and thus protected.”
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which is largely responsible for monitoring the occurrence of infections, wants to largely adhere to the incidence as a guide value for corona measures. “That is incomprehensible to me,” said DKG boss Gass. After all, it is about “maintaining public acceptance for measures against Corona”.
DKG presents its own concept
The problem is how other measures influence the incidence value. Gaß assumes, for example, that the new compulsory test for travelers returning will lead to rising incidences because more tests are simply carried out. These developments would have to be properly classified, for example compared with the rate of positive test results, he told the RND.
The DKG presented a concept to create greater transparency with a mix of different indicators. According to information from the RND, the hospital representatives have a matrix in mind which, differentiated by age, combines key figures on the infection situation, the tests, the vaccination situation and the occupancy of the hospitals.
The seven-day incidence would only be one of a total of twelve indicators. Other key figures would be the rate of positive tests, the vaccination rate and the clinic occupancy by Covid-19 sufferers.
“With this matrix, it is easy to see at a glance what the current pandemic situation really is and what trends or connections there are,” Gass told the RND. For example, one could quickly read from the table whether older, vaccinated people were coming to the clinics again because the vaccination protection was decreasing.
