If corona infections in a county increase sharply, measures must be taken. The head of the Tölzer Health Office explains how he would proceed.
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen - The word “upper limit” has been playing a central role in combating the corona pandemic in Germany for a few days: as soon as a district exceeds 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days, the local one should Taking health measures limited to specific regions - a great responsibility. The Tölz Head of Health Office Dr. In principle, Stephan Gebrande thinks it's good. Health authorities could best assess the situation on site.
The district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen is currently miles away from the above limit. Only a few confirmed new infections have been reported in the past few days. The value of infections in seven days per 100,000 inhabitants - as of May 14, midnight - is 3.9. For comparison: in the neighboring district of Weilheim-Schongau the value is 2.2, in the district of Miesbach 18.0, in the district of Rosenheim 27.2, in the city of Rosenheim it exceeded the "upper limit" again on Thursday and rose to 52.1.
Between March 23 and April 12, today's corona limit was exceeded
But even in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen there were times when today's upper limit was exceeded. According to the Health Department, this was the case in calendar weeks 13, 14 and 15 - roughly between March 23 and April 12.
Dr. Stephan Gebrande, Chief Tölzer Health Department
© Arndt Pröhl
The value is not set up per calendar week, but is recalculated every day, explains Gebrande. It should also be noted that the calculation is based on the reporting date of the cases. "This means that it reflects a situation of at least 10 to 14 days prior to the disease cases." And: The calculation relates to the patient's place of residence. "It may be that the infection is assigned to a certain district, but it occurred outside the district."
Corina: Head of the Bad Tölz Health Department doesn't just want to look at the numbers
In principle, it is good that you no longer just stiffen on the so-called number of reproductions, "but also include other numbers in the evaluation of the pandemic event," says Gebrande. But one should not only look at the "test signal 50 per 100,000 inhabitants", one must also take into account "qualitative information" - for example, "where the infection took place or whether there were certain local outbreaks in nursing homes, old people's homes, initial reception facilities , Accommodations of seasonal workers and so on ”. Only on this basis can sensible measures be taken. "Perhaps Corona will make one or the other weak point of hygiene in our system obvious," says the head of the agency.
In order to obtain a realistic assessment of the situation on site, Gebrande also finds it "very important" not only to consult the new infection numbers, but also the number of inpatient admissions and the deaths.
"We will think very carefully about the measures to be taken"
If the upper limit of 50 is reached, this does not automatically mean that all restrictions in daily life have to be initiated in the district again, emphasizes Gebrande. "If it turns out that an event is limited to one institution, for example, it is necessary to quarantine it and not an entire district, where new cases of disease may not have occurred at all," he explains. "We will think very carefully about what measures should be taken if the test value should be exceeded."
Also read: Chief Health Officer Gebrande zu Corona: "We must not make everything a tragedy"
So what does Gebrande say that the decision about possible local corona regulations will lie with his authority in the future? "It is certainly right to think and act much more small-scale in the future," he says. There are big differences in new infections not only between the individual federal states, but also at the district level.
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Responding to this means much more work for the health authorities. "I just hope that they can then really act independently and independently, because they also know the regional opportunities and needs," says Gebrande. "So far, at least, there are no concrete guidelines on how to proceed in which scenario."
