There are signs of an increase in severe corona cases

Created: 2022-10-07Updated: 2022-10-07 15:20

Oktoberfest visitors in a fully occupied marquee.

© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa

The number of corona cases is increasing.

In the meantime, the autumn wave is also becoming increasingly noticeable in clinics.

The data on this, however, have pitfalls.

Berlin – In the course of the corona autumn wave, there are now also signs of an increase in the number of severe courses to be treated in hospital.

However, the interpretation of certain data on the severity of the disease is difficult, explains the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in its current weekly report.

The statistics would also include cases “that come to the hospital due to another illness or need intensive care treatment and in which the Sars-CoV-2 diagnosis is not the focus of the illness or treatment”.

As before, it is mainly people from a certain group who are in intensive care units because of Covid-19: "Especially the people who are not fully vaccinated and are over 60 years old and have relevant previous illnesses," explained Gernot Marx, President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), on Friday.

The number of Covid-19 patients requiring intensive care in the intensive care units has been increasing again for two weeks.

The increase in hospitals is visible in Bavaria, among other places: On Friday, Munich reported 552 patients with corona in normal, intensive care and transitional wards, 47 percent more than a week ago.

Throughout Bavaria, the number of patients admitted with or because of Corona within a week rose to an all-time high of 1849, according to figures from the State Office for Health and Food Safety.

Clinics: Many employees fell ill with Corona

However, both numbers include a high proportion of patients who were admitted for other reasons and tested positive in the hospital.

Several hospitals even see a majority of patients who come with and not because of Corona.

Some clinics already spoke of a tense situation, among other things because of many employees suffering from Covid-19 themselves.

There are restrictions on operations that can be planned and in individual cases there are station closures, according to the clinics of the Ludwig Maximilian University.

The Helios Kliniken Oberbayern also report increasing corona numbers - especially in their normal wards - and more infected employees.

The tense situation in the clinics also has consequences for rescue services and emergency rooms.

In Upper Bavaria in particular, you sometimes have to drive up to one and a half hours to accommodate patients, said a spokesman for the Bavarian Red Cross.

“The situation has been getting worse again for about one and a half to two weeks.” This is very stressful for the patients and employees and ultimately endangers lives.

Intensive care physicians warn of staff shortages

"The greatest concern for us intensive care physicians, as was the case this summer, is the many absences from employees due to Covid-19 who cannot work with symptoms, but of course have to isolate themselves without symptoms," said Divi President Marx.

"Without these employees, regular operations in the intensive care units and also in the emergency rooms and normal wards cannot be maintained.

We will then have fewer beds that can be operated again, and we will have to postpone operations again.”

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The problem that the data on the number of intensive care patients and the incidence of hospitalization do not allow a distinction to be made between patients who are being treated for Covid-19 or who are only being treated for Sars-CoV-2 has been known for a long time.

Improvements have been announced for months.

However, clinics also argued, for example, that the effort required to isolate all patients who tested positive was the same.

In Bavaria in particular, the number of cases, which is high in a nationwide comparison, also goes back to the Oktoberfest, which ended at the beginning of the week, according to expert estimates.

A certain concentration around Munich is noticeable when comparing the 7-day incidences: Both the city and three of the four directly adjacent districts are now over 1000, the district of Munich is only relatively slightly below.

Overall, the Robert Koch Institute reported values ​​​​over 1000 for nine Bavarian districts and the state capital Munich.

Oktoberfest effect?

The numbers in Munich had already risen sharply in the second week of the Oktoberfest.

The incidences are also increasing noticeably nationwide - but only in Saarland in a weekly comparison even more than in Bavaria.

On Friday, the Robert Koch Institute reported an incidence of 1119.4 for Saarland and 818 for Bavaria. The nationwide seven-day incidence was given as 577.5 (previous week: 466.0; previous month: 217.2 ).

However, this value only provides a very incomplete picture of the number of infections.

Experts assume a high number of cases not recorded by the RKI - mainly because not all infected people have a PCR test done.

Only positive PCR tests count in the statistics.

In addition, late registrations or transmission problems can lead to a distortion of individual daily values.

dpa