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To prevent the spread of the mutant coronavirus B117. Prevent in Berlin is Friday night according to instructions from the Reinickendorf health department. Humboldt Clinic in quarantine state. The hospital was “closed due to the B117 crown mutation,” the Reinickendorf Health Department officially said in a statement the following day.
Until Saturday night they were 20 confirmed cases counted – with 14 patients and six employees. They come from one Internal medicine and cardiology station. Routine screening tests would have shown the evidence, the health department said. Experts assume that an average two-digit number of clinic employees and patients may already be infected with the mutant. Relatives of the clinic staff could already be affected, the identified symptoms speak according to internal evaluations. Reinickendorf’s doctor, Patrick Larscheid, says the outbreak is in the clinic. “It has reached a point that we can barely see at the moment”.
Larscheid pulled the cord on Friday. The Robert Koch Institute is involved in the measures and advises clinics and authorities. The Humboldt Clinic of the state clinical group Vivantes is open from Friday discharged from emergency services, no more emergencies are registered. A Stop recording it was imposed both for hospital treatment and for outpatient interventions and diagnoses. The Humboldt Clinic is targeting patients currently hospitalized there, according to the health department.
The clinic staff were under the so-called Quarantine posting Employees can only travel between work and home and must otherwise comply with quarantine rules. According to information from Tagesspiegel, they are not allowed to use buses or trains. Already restricted access to the clinic has been strengthened: only dialysis patients and relatives of the dying can still enter the clinic, delivery services and artisans can no longer enter.
Emergency care in North Berlin is now restricted
The clinic and the experts in charge of the case speak of a painful step because the Medical and emergency care in North Berlin is now restricted is. But that was necessary, he said. It’s not just about protecting patients and staff, but about protecting the entire capital, said the team that is supposed to control the mutant outbreak. Now everything must be done so that the spread of the Corona mutant in Berlin does not “explode”.
On Saturday afternoon there was a crisis change conference with Health Senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD) with representatives from RKI, the board of Vivantes, the district and the rescue service. Reinickendorf Health Councilor Uwe Brockhausen (SPD) later stated that the preventive closure of the hospital was “a very carefully made decision”. During the conversation, everyone agreed that closure “is necessary and correct in this situation.” Everyone involved is now working full blast to advance investigations, follow up on contacts, and contain as much spread as possible.
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It was said before that one is still at the beginning. Now it’s about getting an overview of how much the crown mutant has already spread in the clinic. All patients and employees should now be tested.
If the test is positive, the sample will be sequenced to identify the possible B117 mutant. Only when the RKI experts, the clinic, and the health department have an overview, should a decision be made on further steps. That would take a few more days, he said.
Mutant increases the risk of infection for personnel
The B117 mutation had appeared in the county of Kent, in the south-east of England, at the end of last year and had become spread rapidly in London and parts of the country. Now it has also been tested in Germany. It is considered to be significantly more contagious than the original form, even if this and the extent of the highest infectivity have not yet been scientifically proven conclusively. Such variants would also be manageable with a constant quarantine.
But in hospitals, for example, where infected people are treated and where even with the constant use of masks, hygiene and ventilation, a certain amount of virus always reaches the air, such a mutant increases the risk of infection, especially for the personal.
[Nachrichten aus Reinickendorf schickt Gerd Appenzeller jeden Mittwoch im Leute-Newsletter. Die gibt es für alle Berliner Bezirke, hier kostenlos bestellen: leute.tagesspiegel.de]
B117 could also be problematic if it is confirmed that the variant also leads to increased mortality. There is not enough data on this yet, but there are clear indications. This possibility is also considered plausible.
Because higher infectivity means that viruses are more efficient at entering human cells. This probably also applies to further spread within the body. It may mean that the virus can multiply faster than the original variant, reducing the likelihood that the immune system will be able to respond in a timely and appropriate manner.
Unlike other mutants that were first detected in Brazil or South Africa, for example, Currently available vaccines appear to be just as effective against B117 versus the variants against which they were developed. However, there is no definitive certainty here either.
