There have been no new corona cases in Marzahn-Hellersdorf for a week. At least on the fax paper. Because since January 10, the district health department has not been able to report any figures to the Robert Koch Institute. The reason for this is computer problems. Due to the rapidly increasing number of cases, the memory of the database was suddenly full. As of Monday afternoon, the problem appears to have been resolved.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the 7-day incidence in Berlin was 965.3 on Monday. That is 397,139 corona cases transmitted electronically – 220 more than the day before. Not included are the cases from Marzahn-Hellersdorf, where the incidence has been “zero” for a few days due to the computer malfunction.
The problem should be resolved by Monday afternoon
How did the glitch come about? At the beginning of the pandemic, the database for notifiable diseases seemed more than adequate, says an IT expert. The abundance of data on corona patients was not expected at the beginning. That’s why the database now had to move to another software. After this happened at the end of last week, it initially seemed like everything was up and running again.
But over the weekend there were repeated error messages and the risk that the integrity of the database was endangered. “The software didn’t get along with the query module of the RKI.” On Monday, the experts came together again in the district office in the hope of solving the problem by the afternoon. “These tasks, which are within the RKI’s area of responsibility, could be solved in close cooperation over the weekend,” said a spokesman for the district office late Monday afternoon. “As of Monday, 1 p.m., the new database and the transmission of data via the interfaces to the RKI are running as planned again.”
The team from the health department will ensure that the cases that have accumulated in the meantime are recorded. Therefore, for the coming days after a report of “0 cases”, a short-term significant increase in the reported incidences above the current level is to be expected.
Each district does it differently
Due to the strict security regulations – for example, no photos may be attached to e-mails – all twelve Berlin districts use the infrastructure of the state-owned IT service center Berlin (ITDZ). But they buy the software for their services themselves. And so all districts use different systems. The districts in their households have received appropriate budgets from the state of Berlin for their computers and decide for themselves what they spend the money on.
Some districts are better equipped than others in certain areas when it comes to digitization. In Reinickendorf, for example, a failure like in Marzahn-Hellersdorf is unthinkable if you follow the words of medical officer Patrick Larscheid. “We knew it was going to be bad and just bought more storage,” he says. That cost us a five-digit amount. I think our way of working is fail-safe.” In Marzahn-Hellersdorf, on the other hand, the database was initially found to be sufficient.
“The system is exhausted,” says Neukölln medical officer Nikolai Savaskan, who points out that everyone is dependent on the ITDZ. “The server capacities in Neukölln are limited and not scalable. “Our Neuköllner IT is on it. But it’s tight.” His health department has saved 35,000 data sets for people infected with corona alone. Each of those infected had an average of ten contacts, which is why the database is filled with around 350,000 records. “The infrastructure is a problem,” says Savaskan. And because the system has reached its maximum capacity, the number of accesses for employees cannot be increased. Home office and mobile working are therefore not possible, says the medical officer.
Hope for a common software – by 2025
The responsible Senate Department for the Interior, Digitization and Sport has not yet received a statement on the problems in Marzahn-Hellersdorf. However, this glitch makes it clear what the overall situation is with the digitization of the Berlin administration. In the offices, fax machines are standard because a fax is considered to be legally secure. Many services, such as registering an apartment, can only be carried out directly in the citizen registration offices, which are usually fully booked. And simple processes such as extending a grave in a cemetery still require correspondence with envelopes and stamps.
In the past, there were always problems with the state-owned computers. From autumn 2019 to spring 2020, the computer system of the Higher Regional Court was out of order because a Trojan was discovered there that was able to access data. Months later, a security update ensured that the computers in the district courts, the regional court and the superior court regularly crashed.
The authorities are now placing great hopes in the “Pact for the Public Health Service”, for which the federal government has made four billion euros available until 2026. In view of the corona pandemic, the federal and state governments want to advance the digitization of health authorities by 2025 and create a unified software architecture.