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Tüingen is doing it, as is the state of Bremen: in view of the sharp increase in the number of new infections, the first regions of Germany have announced that they will provide particularly vulnerable groups of people with high-quality FFP2 masks free of charge. The mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer, wants to distribute these masks, which, unlike blue or cloth surgical masks, also protect the wearer, to people over 65, the mayor of Bremen, Andreas Bovenschulte, wants to distribute them to older people and people with previous illnesses.
Not only these two examples show: the protection of risk groups is currently the focus of the corona pandemic. Recently, demands have been heard more frequently, especially those in need of care, to equip staff in nursing homes and hospitals, teachers, educators and seniors with more corona tests and particulate filtering masks, for example, from the virologist of Bonn Hendrik Streeck or Verdi’s boss Frank Werneke. This is to protect these groups of people from infection with Sars-CoV-2, while protecting care facilities from major outbreaks and visit bans and intensive care units from overload.
Ministry sends masks to nursing homes
While there is still a problem with equipping care centers with rapid antigen tests, the supply of FFP2 masks has apparently dropped significantly after the major bottlenecks of the spring, as requested by the Federal Association of Private Providers. of Social Services (BPA) and the German Association of Caritas informed. Households now reorder their masks themselves, while porters or countries sometimes arrange bulk orders. According to the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, there is currently no supply bottleneck.
As additional support, the Federal Ministry of Health is still delivering 290 million masks from federal stock to nursing homes, specifically around 97,000 packages each containing 1,000 FFP2 masks and 2,000 plain surgical masks, as confirmed by a FAZ spokeswoman. By the end of 2021, the federal government had contractually insured 4.1 billion surgical masks and about 1.7 billion FFP2 masks. Part of this is leading to the national health protection reserve that is currently being established.
Increased prices
Both associations, private care providers like Caritas, also announced that masks are already being used more and more in nursing homes: not only, as prescribed by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), when care workers have confirmed or treated probable suspected cases. test, but also if minimum distance cannot be maintained or residents are not wearing masks. The staff is “well aware that ultimately only the highest quality masks can protect against infection,” says BPA President Bernd Meurer. The RKI also recommends simple mouth and nose protection for all employees in care facilities, including cleaning personnel, for example.
Equipping residents with FFP2 masks, on the other hand, is simply not considered feasible by providers of care facilities. “It should not be forgotten that many people who need care in inpatient facilities have dementia. Wearing face-to-face masks makes them feel insecure, they often don’t understand or tolerate it, and it scares them, ”says Nora Roßner, specialist in outpatient and hospital care at the German Caritas Association. Others have respiratory illnesses or other ailments that make wearing FFP2 masks virtually impossible for them.
In local hospitals, where these masks have also been used for the treatment and care of corona patients and often in suspected cases since the beginning of the crisis, the situation has eased somewhat since spring. During the first wave, numerous hospitals regularly turned to the German Hospital Society (DKG), the umbrella association of clinics, about delivery bottlenecks. “That is not the case now. Therefore, we are assuming sufficient availability,” said DKG Managing Director Georg Baum of FAZ. At that time, about 40 percent would have had to resort to the state contingent. It assumes that this proportion has decreased even more. According to him, the significant increase in prices is still problematic.
It would have declined somewhat in the summer, but not to pre-crisis levels. Experience that can also be confirmed in the Frankfurt health company Agaplesion with a good 20 clinics and 40 care centers for the elderly. “Prices for certified masks are currently four to five times higher than the pre-Corona level,” it says there. Although Asia’s supply chains have “basically stabilized”, the situation is “notably more tense” with the increasing number of infections.
Agaplesion will soon also receive masks from the federal government for its own care facilities. The company had already received material in the spring, albeit with bad experiences. “There were some deliveries of protective materials by the public sector that were defective or of inferior quality and that we then had to call internally. Now, the purchasing and hygiene departments jointly verify the quality of the products before they are delivered to the locations, “said Bettina Beinhauer, Director of Medical Management, in an interview with FAZ recently.
