Schwerin (dpa/mv) – The state parliament has approved improved monitoring of respiratory diseases in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The so-called ARE surveillance is “particularly advantageous in high incidence situations or – as is now the case – during the peaks of seasonal waves of illness,” said Health Minister Stefanie Drese (SPD) on Wednesday in the state parliament. In the past, it was difficult to record cases of illness, especially in these situations.
According to the state government’s application, the new strategy is intended to make data collection and processing “more efficient and profitable”. This includes, among other things, a fixed number of practices and daycare centers that regularly take samples from patients with respiratory diseases and send them to the State Office for Health and Social Affairs (Lagus). The number of corona cases should subsequently also be able to be compared with other pathogens such as influenza.
With the votes of the left, SPD, Greens and FDP, the state parliament agreed to the financing – in the form of a reallocation of 255,400 euros in funds to the MV protection fund special fund.
Following the vote, Drese pointed out the importance of the data for minimizing the exposure of children and young people to corona measures: “The expansion of our state-owned ARE surveillance enables us to predict development trends in a timely and regional manner, to understand age-specific distributions and thus to The burden on our healthcare system can be foreseen. However, it also allows us to derive further corona measures from this data situation in a data-supported, targeted and tailor-made manner.”
With a view to the corona development in autumn and winter, according to the Minister of Health, the goal is still to protect the critical infrastructure and vulnerable groups: “We achieve this by focusing on three pillars: vaccination, testing and MV’s own surveillance”. .
