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Wednesday 23 December 2020
Undertaker in Saxony on the edge
“We are currently cleaning the homes for the elderly”
In no other federal state does the corona virus spread so violently as in Saxony. Due to the high number of deaths, crematoria can barely keep up with cremation. Anger is also growing among the undertakers. Questions are presented to them that they cannot answer.
Crematories in the Free State of Saxony have reached their capacity limit in view of the unchanged high death rate. In front of ntv, Tobias Wenzel, the main undertakers’ guild in Saxony, is alarmed: “We, the undertakers, are cleaning the old people’s homes. That saddens me and makes me angry at the same time.” Many family members approached him with desperate questions: “Why are nursing homes unprepared for the second wave? Why are policy makers still in office? Family members ask me this question,” says Wenzel.
On Tuesday night, a message from Zittau had caused unrest. The city announced that it would have to store the deceased outside the crematorium because the capacity was no longer sufficient. Some crematoria would also operate during the holidays. According to Wenzel, there are ten crematories in Saxony with around 1,700 refrigeration spaces. They are busy right now. It normally takes five days from admission to the crematorium to cremation, currently there are ten.
Due to high demand, the registry office will also be manned on Christmas Eve and the second holiday, in order to report only deaths, the city announced. The office will also be open after Christmas. Bringing the dead to the Czech Republic or other federal states for cremation is not an option. Transportation would have to be done by truck, which is not compatible with dignity. All hope is now in the beginning of the post-Christmas vaccination.
According to Health Minister Petra Köpping, Saxony will start Corona vaccines on December 27 in three nursing homes in Radeberg, in Zwickauer Land and in the Erzgebirge district, as well as in hospitals.
Severely affected by the pandemic
Measured by the incidence rate, Saxony is the crown hotspot in Germany. Since the start of the pandemic, the Free State has recorded 2,547 deaths related to the virus. More recently, 154 people died in a single day. More than 600 patients with Covid-19 are currently in the intensive care units of the state clinics. 3,374 sick people are treated as inpatients. In recent days, intensive care patients had already been transferred to other eastern German states.
At least, the number of new corona infections decreased compared to the previous week. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 2,728 new infections in one day on Wednesday. Last Wednesday (December 16) 5,603 new infections were registered. The number of new infections reported within seven days per 100,000 population (seven-day incidence) fell to 414 according to the Saxony RKI, compared with 426.8 the day before. Nationally, the seven-day incidence is 195.
