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The maps with the districts are bright red. Saxony and Thuringia are sad Crown leaders in Germany on Monday. Despite weeks of lockdowns, the numbers are increasing. Doctors and nurses are at their limit, Saxony has already had patients transferred to other federal states.
Now local public transport with 40 percent utilization is increasingly being a target, Thuringian Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) is calling for the economy to be shut down. “I notice that my cabin is on fire in Thuringia,” he says in ZDF. Undertakings and crematoria are working around the clock, in Saxony the number of deaths in December is up to 88 percent higher than in previous years.
What are the current numbers?
In Thuringia there are 316 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days (incidence of 7 days), in Saxony even 360, a national record. The British variant of the coronavirus (B117) was detected for the first time in Saxony last week; of a person from Dresden who had returned from Great Britain before Christmas. Therefore, Health Minister Petra Köpping (SPD) calls for the rules for the distribution of corona vaccines to be rethought. “Until now, the vaccine has been distributed according to the population of the federal states.”
But other factors must also play a role: the vaccine must go where the mutated virus appears. With 99.8 deaths per crown per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the RKI, Saxony has the highest value in Germany before Thuringia (62).
In addition, there is the age structure of the patients. “The fact that many young people come to hospitals and need treatment is overlooked,” says Ramelow at ZDF. In fact, the average crown patient in Thuringia is currently 50.4 years old. That comes from internal statistics from the Thuringian health department. This collected data between November 16 and January 10, which is available to the Tagesspiegel. Consequently, people in their 20s and 30s with a crown are admitted to clinics in almost all districts.
Why did Saxony and Thuringia become the focal points of the crown crisis?
Alexander Ahrens is going through Covid 19 disease, he has lost his sense of taste and smell. The mayor of Bautzen is in quarantine. Above all, he has three explanations for why the Bautzen district has become one of the largest corona hotspots.
Behind the Meißen district, it ranks second nationally with 533 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days. The SPD politician shares the opinion of many virologists that schools are an engine of the pandemic. “In the first wave, Saxony was one of the first federal states to close schools. That did not happen in the second wave ”. Also, there were border closures in the first wave, but not in the second wave. “It was relatively clear to us that we would get something,” Ahrens says by phone.
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As in Thuringia, there are tens of thousands in Saxony who commute to work from the Czech Republic every day. The number of cases is exploding in the neighboring country, currently the incidence there is 846. In addition, there would be a relief by Christmas and that the Lockdown Light brought almost nothing. Of course, there are many who ignore the rules. This is also due to the fact that there was no real first wave in Thuringia, as in Saxony. Ahrens: “Hardly anyone knew anyone who had Corona.”
Is there a connection between the diseases and the results of the AfD elections?
Ahrens is upset by long-distance judgments about possible correlations between AfD strongholds, a higher level of opponents of Corona’s protective measures, and the high number of infections produced by researchers at the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society. (IDZ) of Jena. “The thesis is silly,” says Ahrens. Everywhere in Germany there are “a certain number of idiots” and left-wing esotericists, as well as staunch Nazis who frolic in “lateral thinker” displays. The sometimes very high numbers in Berlin-Neukölln also have their special reasons, keyword wedding celebrations and other things. Minimizing the virus is not tied to basic political attitudes. “Through many public discussions, I know that a large number of AfD voters take the virus very seriously and are very concerned that some want a much tougher lockdown.”
What responsibility do Ramelow and Kretschmer have?
The prime ministers of Thuringia and Saxony have long belonged to the group of brakemen. Thuringian Prime Minister Ramelow (left) has now admitted that Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) was right. Despite his admission, his cabinet recently blocked the implementation of the 15-kilometer rule, that is, restricting the range of motion to reduce contacts. This has only been adopted as a recommendation. CDU country chief Christian Hirte demonstratively posted a photo on Twitter with the comment: “Even more than 15km from his hometown, he can keep his distance in the snow very well.” There was also a very low willingness to vaccinate among the staff of clinics and nursing homes: factors that complicate the fight against the virus in addition to less support for certain measures.
Kretschmer also admits bugs. The state policy was due to “the general mood too reluctant to take tough action against the pandemic,” he told “Free Press.” In mid-October, prime ministers blocked a shutdown. Kretschmer has received a lot of criticism because he acted too hesitantly out of consideration for the population, and thus also for AfD voters. And he told “Free Press” that he only realized the drama when he visited various clinics in Saxony on December 11. “I wish they had warned me earlier.” That doesn’t exactly speak to your crisis management. His cabinet has now become the first federal state to extend the blockade, which was actually limited to January 31 to February 7. In addition to numerous shops, restaurants and cultural and sports facilities, schools and nurseries will remain closed.
The sharper course meets another crisis: the mood is increasingly aggressive, in Saxony a kind of Corona-Pegida is emerging. The fact that some 30 people have turned up on Kretschmer’s private property in Großschönau (Görlitz district) worries security circles. Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder sees great challenges to protecting the constitution across the country. “Bad thoughts turn into bad words and at some point bad actions as well,” he told the “world.”
How is the situation in crematoriums and funeral homes?
Jörg Schaldach doesn’t have much time. Two trucks with coffins have just arrived at the Meissen crematorium. “The gravediggers can no longer survive with their small trucks, so now they are renting trucks,” says Schaldach. Municipal employees, caretakers, even some acquaintances who are working for a short time, are helping at the Meissen crematorium these days. Managing Director Schaldach wants to buy you at least a coffee and a few words of comfort. Your people are on edge. The 24 employees have been working around the clock for weeks. 7 days a week in three shifts: day and night. They manage 60 cremations a day with the two ovens, in December 1,375 coffins were burned, in January Schaldach expects up to 1,600.
Schaldach has been in business for three decades, or as he puts it: “I have a quarter of a million dead behind me.” But the 57-year-old from Saxony had never experienced anything like this. Twice as many cremations as usual, every second coffin reads “Crown.” According to the RKI, the 7-day incidence in Meißen is currently 547; there is no district in the entire country that is worse off. However, truck deliveries from the Ore Mountains, Lusatia and southern Brandenburg also reach the Meißen crematorium. The entire region has been a corona hot spot for weeks. For Schaldach, of course, the pandemic is neither a lie nor an exaggeration. “Those who deny that are crazy,” he says simply. With all the work, just for the bureaucracy, currently it takes three instead of one person, Schaldach doesn’t want to complain. “We work in the realm of death. In clinics and nursing homes, they work in the death area, that’s even more stressful. “
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Steffi Wenk, director of “LK Bestattungs- und Friedhofsdienste GmbH” in Löbau, in the Görlitz district, is also familiar with stress. “It’s extreme right now,” says the 42-year-old undertaker. She and her three employees currently have to deal with five or six deaths a day. “We normally have two deaths a week,” he says. Your cold rooms are no longer enough. Fortunately, it was winter, so the corpses could be stored in other rooms as well. More than half of the dead died with or by Corona. So the undertakers must be very careful.
Wenk employees wear FFP3 masks, double gloves, and protective clothing. A disinfected cloth is placed on the face of the deceased, the body is moved as little as possible and is not wrapped in clothing of death but in a blanket of death. “Many relatives react with incomprehension. Even when their loved ones have died, they think Corona is just the flu, “Wenk says. She doesn’t want to be angry about it anymore. But the long conversations and the many deaths get to the core. An employee has now reported sick.” I don’t know how much longer we can take it. “
