According to estimates by the RKI, 20,425 employees of health care facilities in Germany are currently infected with the sars-CoV-2 virus (rate: 11.7 percent) as of May 18, 2020; 0:00 hours. However, the number of infected persons is differentiated by institution. According to this study, 11,800 of a total of 175,000 people infected throughout Germany are working in health care in the institutions relevant for infection control in accordance with § 23 of the German Infection Control Act (IfSG), which includes employees in hospitals, doctors‘ practices, outpatient surgery centers, dialysis and delivery centers, in the emergency medical services and in the outpatient sector of intensive care services and rehabilitation clinics. In this area of health care facilities, the rate is only 6.8 percent, but there are no data available, so a higher rate of 9.8 percent has been calculated. 541 of them came to hospitals for treatment, 19 died. In the sector of employees in institutions according to § 36 IfSG, which includes homes for the elderly and disabled, but also asylum and homeless facilities and even prisons, more than 8,500 are infected with the coronavirus, 350 of whom have been hospitalized and 42 have died. The high number of cases is said to be due to the concentrated outbreaks in old people’s and nursing homes in recent weeks. There is an infection protection law in Germany, which stipulates that all infected cases must be reported. However, there is no obligation to report the exact field of activity of the infected persons. The Infection Protection Act therefore does not stipulate that the notification must describe the exact work of the infected person, although in most cases the health authorities are aware of the activity of the person concerned. The exact place of infection is also not recorded because it is unknown in most cases. The affected person may have been infected at work or in his or her personal environment. The Marburger Bund (MB) and the German Nursing Council (DPR) want the exact comparison of the infection figures with regard to the total population in order to be able to initiate even more targeted measures by the health authorities. Both also call for uniform reporting criteria for the statistical surveys and above all against the background of more targeted prevention measures and because of fears of a second wave of infection. In a concept paper, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) attaches great importance to regular testing of medical and nursing staff, as only 43 percent of the testing capacities in Germany are actually used. According to the paper, 845,000 tests could be carried out per week using what is known as PCR diagnostics, including for the aforementioned risk groups – staff in hospitals and nursing homes. So there is still room for improvement.
Source: Aerzteblatt