RKI takes a detailed look at Covid 19 patients with symptoms

The capacities for PCR tests will probably not be sufficient in the omicron wave. Only the cases confirmed in this way are included in the seven-day incidence, for example. What is the RKI planning?

Berlin – In view of the continuing omicron wave, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is increasingly focusing on the burden of disease caused by Covid-19 in evaluations of the corona situation.

The experts have recently published estimates of those infected with Covid 19 symptoms of various degrees of severity in the Corona weekly report, as can be seen from the RKI publication on Thursday evening. Corresponding incidence estimates are based on the institute’s systems, which have been in existence for some time and are used to monitor the development of acute respiratory diseases in the population. One of them, for example, is based on information from the population.

Specifically for Covid-19, there are now estimated values for cases below the threshold for hospital admissions, such as the frequency of doctor visits: 178 per 100,000 inhabitants in the week up to January 16, according to the report. For the same period, it was estimated “that around 0.4 to 1.2 percent of children and adolescents up to the age of 14 and 0.5 to 1.1 percent of the population aged 15 and over contracted Covid-19 with symptoms of an acute respiratory disease “. A total of 3,900 is estimated for hospital admissions in the past week.

“The systems are largely independent of testing strategies, population and healthcare testing behavior, and test availability,” the sources report said. However, they would have a limited geographical resolution.

The background to the introduction of the supplementary data is that the reports on the number of people with a positive PCR test are becoming less complete due to the high load in the omicron wave, according to the RKI. Test capacities and health authorities are at the limit in many places. The RKI expects that the maximum deflection of the omicron wave in Germany will probably not be able to be precisely measured by reporting data.

Additional data from the RKI

According to the institute, a complete record of all infected people was never intended. It also now emphasizes that the registration data would not become irrelevant. They remained important for management and decisions about actions on the ground. The magnitude and the decisive trends in the epidemiological development would continue to be reliably displayed. According to the institute, however, the additional data is of particular importance. It has long been insisted that one should not rely on individual indicators when assessing the situation

What was already available is data on corona intensive care patients from the so-called Divi intensive care register. As a result, there is still no sign of a reversal of the declining trend in intensive care units, according to the daily report on Thursday, the number of patients treated there fell further to 2447. However, the RKI writes that the current infection process there is probably only delayed.

The RKI has also been reporting an incidence of Covid 19 hospital admissions for some time, but this has the shortcoming of a relatively large delay in reporting. However, with the Omicron variant and, according to initial findings, the less serious courses compared to Delta, experts fear an increasing burden on normal wards.

Omicron on the rise in Germany

According to the RKI report, the proportion of the Omikron variant in Germany has now increased even further. In the reporting data from the federal states, it was almost 90 percent last week. In view of this very widespread use, the additional benefit of variant-specific PCR tests is “limited”, it said. Due to the limited test capacities and the sharp increase in the number of cases, it makes sense to give preference to PCR tests for diagnostic purposes. dpa