Suddenly much higher numbers: confusion about corona incidence

Created: 2022-01-19Updated: 2022-01-19, 2:56 p.m

By: Marc Write

The RKI dashboard on January 19, 2022 shows a 7-day incidence of 748.7.

© Robert Koch Institute

There are deviations in the corona incidences in the district of Munich.

In the weekly listing on the homepage of the district office, the incidence figures from last Thursday and Friday do not match the figures that were updated daily on the website.

Now there is an explanation.

District

– days later it can be read there that there was an incidence of 761.3 on Thursday and 799.9 on Friday.

However, when first notified, the incidence was 625.4 on Thursday and 700.6 on Friday.

On both days, the incidence reported later but not identified as such was noticeably higher.

When asked by Münchner Merkur, the district office now explains how this exchange of numbers came about:

Delayed reporting of case numbers

According to the authorities, the incidences for individual days change retrospectively for the past few days, for example if laboratory reports are delayed by the health department. Reports received by the health department after the time of transmission to the RKI (Robert Koch Institute) are always retrospectively added to the reporting date. There are therefore fundamental deviations between the daily updated figures and the adjusted view.

"In times with few cases, these deviations are hardly noticeable," as the district office explains.

In times of extremely high numbers, as is currently the case, the deviations would also be larger.

This means that nationwide the incidences can always change retrospectively.

This development can be observed on the RKI website.

A table with the adjusted incidences is uploaded here every day.

District office strengthens data collection team

Due to the number of infections, the health department of the district of Munich, as elsewhere, cannot always record all cases on the same day.

The reporting of new cases is currently delayed by about a day.

The district office reports that the data collection team has already been increased in terms of staff so that the cases that are still open can be entered quickly.

The state government has currently suspended the hotspot regulation, so that there are currently no incidence-dependent measures anyway.

The Bavarian hospitalization value is decisive.