Covid-19 numbers: high correlation between rate of positives and intensive care unit-treated patients

In the context of the ongoing basic rights limitations, the communication of the relevant numbers is of upmost importance. It has often been discussed that the pure number of newly postive-tested persons (Fr: Incidence, cas confirmés, It. casi, G.: Neuinfektionen) is little informative.

Data published by
a) the association of German intensive care doctors and
b) the Robert Koch Institute (German state-run institute in charge of the monitoring of infection diseases)

show a high correlation between 
the number of patients that are treated in an intensive care unit and have the virus (upper curve)
and
the rate of positive tests (lower curve, red dots).

The rate of positive tests is thus a much more reliable and informative indicator than the number of new cases.

Clearly, it would be even more informative to communicate the number of patients who have the corona pneumonia as it makes a big difference whether those are 90% or 9% of all icu-treated corona patients.