Berlin – The first Christmas without state restrictions for the corona after two years of a pandemic… However, caution should not be thrown overboard. Because the contagion curve is soaring.
A look at the annual report is initially reassuring: the 7-day incidence is currently at a relatively low level of 261.1 infected persons per 100,000 population (December 23, 2021: 333.6 infected persons per 100,000).
But the numbers don’t reflect the actual infection process. The truth is in the sewers.
► Since 2021, the Berliner Wasserbetriebe has been examining mixed 24-hour samples every half hour, which are taken from the inflows of the wastewater treatment plants in Ruhleben, Waßmannsdorf and Schönerlinde. The plants cover 83.4 percent of the supply requirements.
In the laboratory, employees use a special PCR test to determine the viral load per liter of wastewater. The data is entered into the wastewater monitoring table in the management report.
The curve is alarming. Shows an exponential increase. Since mid-November, the viral load in wastewater has increased by 36%!
High excretions of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater on the one hand and low 7-day incidence on the other? How does it combine?
“It can be assumed that there are still an unreported number of 7-day cases right now,” a Senate Health Administration spokeswoman said at a request from BILD. It seems possible and probable that the number of infected people will increase.
Uta Böckelmann with Jens Feddern, head of the water supply department of the Berliner Wasserbetriebe
Supposedly fewer Covid patients undergo PCR tests, “behind the scenes” still contribute to the correct assessment through their excretions. And in real time. The 7-day incidence, on the other hand, is always seven to ten days late. Theoretically, the growing Christmas wave could also be reflected in the incidence.
The Senate Health Administration therefore advises: “Please use the possibilities with which we have protected ourselves and others in times of high infection rates: wear a mask, especially in public interiors, sneeze in the crook of the arm, wash your hands, keep your distance, air regularly.
