BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2020) The government of the German capital city said on Tuesday that it had adopted a three-color reference system for categorizing the criteria used to either weaken or strengthen the coronavirus-related restrictions.
German regional authorities have been given the discretion to determine the COVID-19 restrictions in their jurisdiction on their own. According to the Berlin authorities, they have adopted a "traffic-light" reference system, in which the color green means a low risk of infection, the yellow signals moderate risk requiring attention, and the red is for circumstances requiring an immediate intervention.
"We can work with three indicators. If simultaneously two of them are assigned yellow level, then the senate examines the situation in detail. If simultaneously two fall into the red zone, then we must act," Dilek Kalayci, the head of the city's health department, said at a press briefing with Berlin Mayor Michael Muller.
Three indicators, as outlined by Kalayci, are the virus reproduction rate, the number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, and the ratio of occupied beds in intensive care units.
In case of the reproduction rate, a green threat level will be declared if the figure is below 1, meaning that each one infected individual transmits the virus to fewer than one other individual, the yellow level will be for the rate of 1.1, and the red level for the rate of above 1.2.
With regard to number of new cases per 100,000 people, the green level will be for a daily increment of fewer than 20 cases, yellow for the 20-30 range, and red for more than 30 cases.
As for the number of beds in intensive care units, the green level will be applied if less than 15 percent of beds are occupied, yellow for when a 15-25 range is occupied, and red for when more than a quarter of all available beds are occupied.
Berlin has so far reported 6,274 verified coronavirus cases, an increase of two from Sunday midnight to Monday midnight.
