A study sees deficiencies in the number of deaths statistics of the RKI. The Omikron vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer is apparently about to be approved in Europe. The European Medicines Agency EMA is currently reviewing the vaccine for the omicron variants BA. 4 and BA.5. You can find all the news in the Corona ticker on FOCUS online.
Sunday, August 28, 7.30 a.m .: According to a study by the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), the corona death statistics from the Robert Koch Institute only partially reflect reality in the omicron wave. According to this, only 46 percent of the people who are recorded in the RKI statistics as corona deaths actually died of corona in the omicron wave. With the Delta variant, it was still 85 percent.
“That means only around half of the ‘corona deaths’ reported to the RKI actually fell victim to the virus when omicron appeared,” said Stefan Kluge, director of the clinic for intensive care at the UKE, of the “Bild am Sonntag”. “Only very rarely does someone die of omicron who has been vaccinated and has no additional risk factors.” Risk factors are: very old age and therapies used in cancer, organ transplants or rheumatism to suppress the immune system.
The death statistics have “no clear database”, criticizes intensive care physician Michael Albrecht from the University Hospital Dresden: “In my opinion, one should distinguish between Covid-19 as the main and secondary diagnosis.”
At the request of the newspaper, the Federal Ministry of Health informed the newspaper that they were working together with the RKI on new, daily updated queries to the hospitals. Graduation is imminent.
There has already been criticism of the RKI in the past that too many cases are listed as corona deaths in the statistics. The federal government announced in April: “The statistics of the Robert Koch Institute include the corona deaths in which there is laboratory-confirmed evidence of a Covid 19 infection and who died in relation to this infection.” The risk of dying from Covid-19 is higher for people with certain previous illnesses. It is therefore often difficult in practice to decide to what extent the corona infection contributed directly to death.
Both people who died directly from the disease (“died from”) and people with previous illnesses who were infected with the virus and for whom it cannot be conclusively proven what the cause of death was (“died with”), would be recorded, according to the announcement by the federal government.
It is always at the discretion of the health department whether a case is transmitted to the RKI as “deceased from” or “deceased with” Covid-19. A large proportion of the reported deaths are reported as “died from the reported disease”.
4:20 p.m .: Cases of reports of post-vac syndrome, i.e. health impairments after vaccination, are increasing. In an interview with “Welt”, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said that he was “very seriously” dealing with it. “The impression must not be given that something is being swept under the table here. Post Vac Syndrome is indeed a problem. On the one hand.” On the other hand, you have to see it in perspective.
“The symptoms of this syndrome are similar to long Covid symptoms, but they are much milder and occur much less frequently than these. From my point of view, there are good reasons to opt for the vaccination despite a low residual risk,” says Lauterbach. The consequences of diseases without vaccination protection are considerably more serious.
2:20 p.m .: After a Covid-19 infection, a young girl from Brisbane fought for her life in the intensive care unit for weeks. Mikayla Sullivan contracted the virus during the recent coronavirus outbreak in Australia. However, instead of developing a cough and fever, her brain and spine began to swell. Five doctors had to treat the little one after her kidneys slowly failed. She was also unable to walk or speak due to the infection.
It wasn’t until four weeks later that her condition improved and her kidney values returned to normal. She was then transferred to a rehabilitation clinic, but she still cannot walk or speak.
“Mikayla started moving yesterday but her speech and fine motor skills are severely affected and all because of Covid,” her mother told the Daily Mail. The little one had no autoimmune diseases or other medical problems beforehand and did not take any medication: “Before Corona, she was fine,” explains Sullivan.
12.33 p.m .: Almost a week after the end of the Straubing Gäuboden folk festival, the number of corona infections in the Lower Bavarian city and in the Straubing-Bogen district is increasing significantly. According to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Saturday, Straubing was in second place nationwide with a seven-day incidence of 737.2, followed by the district with a value of 694.9.
On Monday – the last holiday – the incidences were still in the nationwide average of about 280 at the time (27.8.: 260.3). Around 1.3 million people attended the traditional Gäuboden folk festival in the town of 47,000.
There were similar developments in the number of new infections registered per 100,000 people within seven days, for example after the Kulmbach Beer Week and after the Erlangen Bergkirchweih. According to RKI data, the numbers are also increasing noticeably there after the Dachau folk festival. With a seven-day incidence of 604.7, the district of Dachau was ranked 5th nationwide on Saturday.
Saturday, August 27, 5:29 a.m .: The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the nationwide seven-day incidence on Saturday morning as 260.3. This is evident from numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 5:25 a.m. The day before, the value of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week was 263.6 (previous week: 302.9; previous month: 652.0). However, this information only provides a very incomplete picture of the number of infections. Experts have been assuming for some time that there will be a large 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 the distortion of individual daily values.
The health authorities in Germany recently reported 33,226 new corona infections (previous week: 36,295) and 101 deaths (previous week: 121) to the RKI within one day. Here, too, comparisons of the data are only possible to a limited extent due to the test behavior, late registrations and transmission problems. In general, the number of registered new infections and deaths varies significantly from weekday to weekday, since many federal states do not transmit them to the RKI, especially at weekends, and report their cases later in the week. The RKI has counted 32,041,348 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections go undetected.
Friday, August 26, 5:08 a.m .: The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the nationwide seven-day incidence on Friday morning as 263.6. This is evident from numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 5 a.m. The day before, the value of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week was 271.3 (previous week: 312.5; previous month: 678.7). However, this information only provides a very incomplete picture of the number of infections. Experts have been assuming for some time that there will be a large 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 the distortion of individual daily values.
The health authorities in Germany recently reported 37,343 new corona infections (previous week: 46,724) and 90 deaths (previous week: 169) to the RKI within one day. Here, too, comparisons of the data are only possible to a limited extent due to the test behavior, late registrations and transmission problems. In general, the number of registered new infections and deaths varies significantly from weekday to weekday, since many federal states do not transmit them to the RKI, especially at weekends, and report their cases later in the week.
The RKI has counted 32,008,122 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections go undetected.
10.50 a.m .: Biontech boss Uğur Şahin has announced the timely delivery of the new and thus adapted booster vaccine. That could be the case in just a few weeks, according to Şahin in a “Spiegel” interview. “Delivery is logistically complex and requires a few days of preparation. But we could deliver very soon, hopefully at the beginning of September. “
According to the Biontech boss, two different versions should even come onto the market. “It has to be said that we produced two different versions: One is based on the omicron subtype BA.1. We have submitted all the necessary data for approval to the European authority EMA. The other vaccine is based on the subtype BA.5, which is currently dominant in the EU, and we are currently submitting the final documents.”
Now the only thing that matters is how quickly the responsible authorities issue the permits.
Surf tip: Vaccines in the big check – information about Biontech, Moderna, Novavax, Astrazeneca, Curevac, Johnson
8.20 a.m .: Two weeks after North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong Un declared the corona pandemic defeated, four new “fever” cases have occurred in the internationally isolated country. The diseases were on August 23 from the Ryanggang province bordering China been reported, state news agency KCNA reported on Thursday, citing data from the state Emergency Center for Epidemic Prevention.
Those affected were infected in the course of the “malicious epidemic”, it said. In connection with the corona pandemic, North Korea speaks of “fever patients”, not of corona patients – apparently due to a lack of testing capacities.
Two weeks ago, Kim Jong Un announced a “brilliant victory” in the fight against the virus and ordered the restrictions to be largely lifted. No new cases had been reported since July 29.
North Korea sealed off its borders in early 2020 after the start of the pandemic to protect itself from the corona virus. Last May, the isolated communist country confirmed an outbreak of the omicron variant in the capital Pyongyang for the first time. According to KCNA, a total of 4.8 million “fever” cases were recorded, but only 74 of them died.
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