COVID-19 in Schleswig-Holstein: Infektionsepidemiologische Auswertungen von März bis September 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic poses major challenges for the German notification system in public infection control. For the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein evaluations, the state reporting office supports the public health departments by providing daily and weekly evaluations and supports the transmission of notification data to the Robert Koch Institute according to the Infection Protection Act. In the present report of the state notification office of Schleswig-Holstein, the SARS-CoV‑2 reporting data for the period from March to September 2020 are evaluated. Based on the development of the infection numbers, this period was divided into two phases of similar size: March to May and June to September. A total of 4898 infection cases were reported. Upon comparison of the phases, there were particularly marked differences in hospitalization and mortality, age, and countries of infection site. In the first phase, elderly persons were particularly affected by high rates of hospitalization and mortality. In the second phase, the average age and hospitalization and mortality rates were significantly lower, and a particularly large proportion were associated with international travel activity. The evaluation of the outbreak documentation revealed a particular focus in private household settings. This article describes the epidemic situation in a low-incidence state within the Federal Republic of Germany.