The number of infections with the corona virus in Berlin is again increasing significantly, especially in the center of the city. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) registered for the Mitte district 28.1 new infections per 100,000 population within the past seven days (as of Wednesday) – that is more cases than in any other district of the capital. In a national comparison, Berlin-Mitte is in second place. Only in the Bavarian district of Dingolfing-Landau were there far more at 93.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. In total, there have been Sars-Cov-2 cases confirmed in Mitte since the end of March 1517, 16 residents of the district died of or with the disease.
According to counts and calculations of the daily mirrorwhich are usually about a day ahead of those of the RKI, the value for Berlin-Mitte is even 29.5.
The district doctor, Lukas Murajda, told Tagesspiegel that so far it has been possible to locate those affected in Mitte and isolate them at home. His district is not a risk area in which the situation is getting out of control.
Berlin’s health senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD) told Tagesspiegel that, as announced, they would react comprehensively if the traffic light system for all of Berlin shows “red”.
This is currently not the case, even if a district has increased values. “I exchanged ideas with the City Councilor for Health and the medical officer from Mitte and we agree: The increase in infections is particularly due to return traffic and there are no strong local outbreaks, but a high number of individual cases.”
Mayor Michael Müller (SPD) and Kalayci had determined in May that Berlin would go its own way with the reactions to new infections: At the time, the federal and state governments had agreed that if there were 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week, local infection protection measures would be tightened. On Wednesday, the total for Berlin was 13.3 newly infected under 100,000 inhabitants in seven days. Only the federal states of Hamburg are ahead of that with 15.6 and North Rhine-Westphalia with 14.3 – the third city-state of Bremen currently has a value of 4.4.
The President of the Berlin Medical Association, Günther Jonitz, told the Tagesspiegel, Berlin will not be a risk area, even if the number of infections has increased due to the vacation. More will be tested and therefore more discovered. The Senate commissioned the Charité with a test strategy. Doctors at the university clinic and doctors from the state’s own Vivantes houses are now testing travelers at the airports. In addition, the tests at schools and daycare centers have been expanded and often significantly more contact persons of infected people are tested than in the spring, when people with symptoms of the disease in particular were tested.
Apparently the laboratories will soon be at full capacity. According to Tagesspiegel information, the number of weekly tests in Berlin’s laboratories is at a provisional record high: While 29,955 people were tested for the corona virus in the 27th calendar week at the beginning of July in Berlin, last week there were 46031 tests – at the beginning of July 295 cases of infection were detected, last week there were 501 people – that is about one percent of those tested in both cases. (Carsten Werner, Hannes Heine)
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