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Markus Söder (CSU) seems to be in a good mood. Shortly before the press conference, he stands in the sun and jokes. You can see it in the laugh lines around his eyes, of course he wears a mask over his mouth. Söder wants to take stock of how things went with the Bavarian test strategy, and thinks: actually quite good. 480,000 people were tested, 6,000 of them positive. “You wouldn’t have figured it out any other way,” says Söder. Bavaria has bypassed another hotspot and provided a “service” for the whole of Germany with its tests for returning travelers. Söder talks like this for about twenty minutes. Problems? Yes, there was, he says. But don’t they exist everywhere? He had the impression that they were watching him very carefully.
Perhaps the impression is not entirely wrong, but Söder is not entirely innocent either. Being just one of the many for whom the fight against Corona doesn’t always work out, until now Markus Söder didn’t give the impression that that was his claim. So far, Söder has praised Bavaria as a role model. But things are not going so well in Bavaria either. After the great failure of the test in August, now there is criticism again. Soon, however, the test centers at the border and at the main train stations will cease to exist. Söder announced this on Tuesday. Because of the setbacks? He said no. Testing at the borders only made sense during the holiday season. However, you no longer want to set it up for winter break.
The tests are now offered in municipal centers instead of train stations and highways. This is nothing for passing people. Bavaria’s “Service for Germany” is largely over. It remains to be seen if the same applies to criticism of test centers. It ranges from long wait times to worrying about whether employees are working professionally, some four weeks after Söder promised to improve.
Back then, on August 13, I was standing in the same spot and not in a good mood. About 44,000 people returning from a trip had to wait a long time for their test results, 900 of them tested positive and possibly infected others. You will learn from mistakes and do better in the future, Söder said at the time. And try to “fix mistakes forever.”
The attempt was not entirely successful. Why? Anyone who talks to employees at the ministries, but also those at the test stations, will find that most of the problems that led to the big test failure in August have been resolved, but not all. At that time there was no software with which the data could be recorded and forwarded digitally, among other things because it had to be particularly fast.
Meanwhile, data is being recorded digitally everywhere. The fact that 10,000 people had to wait again in a five-day period was due to a computer error. All data was recorded digitally, but there was a problem with the interface. Think of it as a bottle that has trouble loosening the cork. When this finally succeeded last weekend, the information could be transmitted quickly and in one go. Technical problems only occurred at airports, but there were also delays at test centers on motorways.
Readers informed the SZ and other outlets, for example, that they had to wait six days for results. The Ministry of Health announced that these were only “isolated cases”. The delays occurred about ten percent over a period of several weeks. The main cause of waiting times must be additional laboratory tests, which are necessary for some samples because the result is not clearly positive or negative. This could happen, for example, if the examined person drank alcohol or used a nasal spray, said the responsible State Office of Health (LGL).
Criticism of the test station personnel in Bavaria
Also, there is always criticism that worries the staff. The Bavarian Red Cross (BRK) had already warned in August that it could be difficult for private operators Ecolog (airports) and Eurofins (car service stations) to find suitable employees. Both prior medical knowledge and the instruction of a doctor are required, for example. Now it is heard in circles of aid organizations that it is mainly students, security personnel and stage workers who take throat samples at the test stations. Do you work professionally? Many mistakes can be made both when donning the protective suit and when taking the sample, says someone who is in contact with aid organizations. This could not only result in incorrect tests, but could also endanger employees or travelers.
When asked about this, Prime Minister Markus Söder refers to his Minister of Health, who is next to him. Such information would be followed up immediately, says Melanie Huml (CSU). However, the ministry has not received any complaints about poor working conditions or lack of hygiene measures.
Huml also says one thing, by the way, in a subordinate clause. In the future, other companies should cut train stations and highway service stations. Eurofins will only deal with laboratory analysis. The Centogene company, which also offers these services in other federal states, will do so at train stations. MKT Krankentransporte and the aid organization “Die Malteser” are cutting the roads. Why suddenly the change, although it was always said that everything should be in one hand? What if that has something to do with the breakdowns? Huml doesn’t answer the last question. The only reason for the change, she says: “The contract has simply expired.”
And then there is the fundamental criticism of the Söder test centers, which has nothing to do with whether everything is working well there. Bavaria is the only country where everyone can get tested, regardless of whether there are symptoms. Virologists, but also the Federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn (CDU), warned that then there would be no more testing capabilities. But Söder points out that, in theory, 100,000 tests per day are currently possible in Bavaria, although only about 50,000 are requested. It sticks to “low-threshold tests” despite failures, but not some promises. There was a 48-hour guarantee for test stations at the borders. When should the result appear? “As soon as possible,” says Söder.
