Corona incidence in Bonn on the rise Database update leads to transmission error
Bonn · The seven-day incidence in Bonn has risen significantly to 80.7. Over the weekend, the city was again unable to update the Corona figures due to a transmission error. How does the reporting system behind the incidence numbers work?
The incidence figure is one of the most important measures used to track infection events in the Corona pandemic. Recently, when problems with the current figures arose, the city of Bonn repeatedly referred to transmission errors to the NRW State Center for Health (LZG). Last weekend, for example, the city could not update the value due to technical problems. How does the reporting system behind the incidence value actually work?
The seven-day incidence tells how many new people in Bonn have fallen ill in the same period, not in absolute numbers, but in relation to each 100,000 inhabitants in the city. "The newly reported cases are entered into the reporting software "SurvNet," a database," Monika Hörig, spokeswoman for the city of Bonn, explained on Monday. This data would then be anonymously forwarded each day from this database to the LZG, which recalculates the seven-day incidence each day, taking into account corrections to the previous week's case numbers. The latter is necessary, for example, if a Corona case is accidentally reported twice.
The LZG publishes the figures on its website and forwards them to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The LZG checks the numbers according to its criteria, Hörig said, "That's why we wait until the LZG has evaluated and published our reports." That usually happens early in the morning, he said. Last weekend, however, there was a technical problem with an update of the "SurvNet" database, according to Hörig.
Incidence value rises significantly
Over the past week, the seven-day incidence in Bonn has slowly increased, jumping from 63.4 (Feb. 20) to 80.7 (Feb. 22) over the weekend. After Corona reports from two retirement homes in Beuel and Bonn last week, was there another outbreak? No, Hörig said. A new outbreak at one facility was not the reason for this sudden increase, he said.
Hörig explained the increase as due to a variety of factors. For one, the numbers rose because of the known outbreaks at two nursing homes. At the Protestant Haus Theresienau in Beuel, infections had been found in 32 residents and six staff members last week. There was a smaller outbreak at Haus Rosental in Bonn, also a Protestant home.
In addition, an "increase in diffuse outbreaks" has led to the rise in incidence, Hörig said. She also pointed out that the seven-day statistics can only show this week. Low case numbers from eight days ago no longer count.
Currently, 305 people in Bonn have contracted Corona, 266 of them in the past seven days. In the Bonn hospitals are just 70 Covid patients from Bonn and the surrounding area (as of February 22), of which 28 people are in intensive care units and 17 must be ventilated. The city announced that with the rising temperatures, city order service and the guard GABI at the banks of the Rhine and at other popular destinations will increasingly control the Corona rules.
Original text: Christine Ludewig. Translation: Mareike Graepel
