Higher demand for vaccinations Number of Covid infections continues to rise in Bonn
Bonn · The Covid incidence rate is going up and is probably much higher than assumed, as wastewater tests from Cologne suggest. At the same time, health authorities are also busy with another virus: An eighth case of monkeypox has been reported in Bonn.
There is an eighth case of monkeypox in Bonn. "The person is doing well. She is in outpatient treatment and is contacted regularly by the health department during her quarantine," the city of Bonn said Wednesday. Of the total number of cases reported since the beginning of June, three people are no longer in domestic quarantine.
Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus infections in Bonn continues to rise. In the past seven days, 2,757 new infections, all confirmed by PCR tests, have been reported to the health department. This brings the seven-day incidence to 834 on Wednesday, up from around 200 at the end of May. The pattern in Bonn is in line with that in the whole of NRW. 131 people with Covid-19 are currently being treated in Bonn hospitals, 14 of them in intensive care units, five of them on ventilators.
Currently, the most affected age group is the 20- to 39-year-olds, with an incidence of nearly 1,100, and the 40- to 59-year-old age group, with 1,027. The 0 to 19 year age group: 515.6 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week; 60 to 79 years: 587; 80 years and older: 438.6. "Currently, there are six outbreaks with at least three related infections in six senior living facilities and five outbreaks in four hospitals," according to the city press office.
Cologne: Actual incidence twice as high
Studies from Cologne indicate that the actual number of cases is much higher. Based on a wastewater analysis, it was determined that the incidence must actually be twice as high. The advantage of the new method, which has long been standard in other European countries and, according to Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), should also be used more frequently in Germany: It detects infections in people who have no symptoms and therefore do not take a coronavirus test. Since everyone must go to the bathroom, the data is more complete.
Since March, a similar study has been underway in Bonn in which the city and the university hospital are working together. But there are no interim results yet. What the scientists are particularly interested in: The situation of wastewater disposal in Bonn, with separate inflows of wastewater from hospitals and wastewater from residential areas, which results in a unique opportunity to correlate coronavirus incidences and hospitalization rates with the wastewater studies.
Second location for getting vaccines: Faced with an increasing demand for vaccination, the City of Bonn has not only extended the opening hours of its vaccination center in the Stadthaus by two hours, but also opened a second vaccination location. Vaccines are given in the Passage on Berliner Platz 2, on Wednesdays from 12 to 6 p.m. and every second Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Orig. text: Nicolas Ottersbach
Translation: ck
