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Entrance of a health department (symbol picture)
Photo: Jonas Güttler / dpa
Health experts have sharply criticized the expected uncertainty in the information about the development of the corona pandemic in Germany due to the holidays. "It is completely incomprehensible to me why we still have unclear data every weekend, as well as on public holidays," said the chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, of the "world". “We're not up to date. The data that we will receive in the next few weeks should open the door to a wide range of interpretations. Including many wrong ones. "
The head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, pointed out an expected incomplete picture on Wednesday.
In a note on the daily number of cases, the RKI has been saying since Thursday morning: "During the holidays and at the turn of the year, when interpreting the number of cases, it should be noted that less test and reporting activity is to be expected."
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The head of the Berlin health research institute IGES, Bertram Häussler, told the "Welt" on the day before Christmas Eve: "Today we get the last valid data before the country sinks into ignorance for three weeks".
Häussler criticizes the fact that almost two years after the outbreak of the pandemic there is still a "similarly nebulous reporting situation";
this is regularly the case on weekends.
Only the blind flight will not last two to three days at the end of the year, but several weeks.
Reliable figures only again in January?
The health policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Tino Sorge (CDU), told the newspaper that the corona data situation was miserable even after two years. "Again we are lulling ourselves into a false sense of security over the turn of the year." The FDP politician Andrew Ullmann said that the poor data situation due to delayed reporting is now a well-known problem. "Unfortunately, for almost two years it has been accepted as a given and unchangeable." You see the problem and work on it. In contrast to the last public holidays, test and vaccination centers are open in many places this time. "The delay in reporting is thereby weakened somewhat."
The head of the medical association, Ute Teichert, had said that the figures should not be reliable until the beginning of January.
According to Teichert, not only the health authorities are responsible for the inadequate data situation between the years, which are not allowed to keep up with reporting positive corona evidence as usual. In their opinion, simply fewer people go to the test.
him / dpa