Surveillance and disease control of a newly-emerging disease from the perspective of a State Health Institute using the example of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of the experience on state and local health authority level that the German human surveillance system had so far in integrating the newly emerging disease SARS-CoV-2 into the existing surveillance framework. The magnitude of cases within a short time frame stretched the surveillance system at federal, state and local level. The electronic infectious disease notification system SurvNet@RKI has been flexible enough to adapt to the situation, but has limitations for large-scale contact tracing. Despite it being a zoonotic disease, a One Health approach has not been implemented yet. A formal evaluation of the German disease surveillance across administrative levels and technical capabilities as well as implementation of resulting recommendations would improve the response to similar situations in the future.

Keywords

• covid-19
• infectious disease surveillance
• germany