Olaf Scholz is sworn in as Germany's new chancellor
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Federal Medical Association President Dr Klaus Reinhardt has criticised the lack of data on COVID-19. It comes as Chancellor Scholz is considering shortening COVID-19 self-isolation periods over fears that critical services could grind to a halt. The Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases reported 58,912 new infections on Wednesday, up 47 percent from the same day a week ago.
The country recorded another 346 deaths, taking the pandemic total to 112,925.
But Dr Reinhardt has stated it is “time to end the digital version of reading coffee dregs”.
He calls for better data collection and sees the UK as a role model.
He added: “With a view to the spread of Omicron, we need more meaningful scientific data.
“Other countries such as Great Britain are much further ahead and collect representative samples at regular intervals, which allow conclusions to be drawn about the spread of certain virus mutants in the population or in certain population groups or regions/”
The President of the German Medical Association asked the new federal government to “take care of this unfinished business”.
He used the German city of Bremen as an example of a positive date.
He added: “The state of Bremen has shown how to do it and has significantly increased the number of employees in the health authorities towards the end of the year.”
A seven-day incidence rate of 516.4 for Bremen was reported on Tuesday – the highest value of all federal states.
The state has the highest vaccination rate in Germany at 83.2 percent.
Bremen’s Senator for Health, Claudia Bernhard, explained the high incidence by saying that the data from Bremen reported at the end of the year are more complete than from other states.
Ms Bernhard said: “There is no bow wave here in Bremen nor are there any pending reports of corona cases.
“We are assuming that Omicron will be the dominant variant in Bremen this week”.
In the UK, 24 NHS trusts have now declared a “critical” status.
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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “We are always trying to find the right compromise between going too tight on restrictions, lockdowns… and then again not wanting our hospitals to be overrun.
“This is where I think Plan B has been shown to be the right approach so far.
“There are 137 trusts, there are 24 which are critical. It is not entirely unusual for hospitals to go critical over the winter, often with things like the flu pandemic, but there are very real pressures which I absolutely recognise.”
He added that an additional 5,000 doctors and 10,000 more nurses are in place across the country compared to last year.
Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg.
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