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The sharp increase in the number of cases has significantly exacerbated the crown situation in Germany: one in ten health departments is now overloaded. Virologist Drosten advises caution and expects improvement in summer.
Despite the partial lockdown to combat the corona pandemic that began on Monday, virologist Christian Drosten of the Berlin Charité does not expect rapid normalization. “One thing is certain: the pandemic is not over at Easter,” he told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. “But by the summer at the latest, our lives can change significantly for the better, if we can now control the increasing number of infections.”
The dissemination of rapid tests could help in the fight against the pandemic. “If they are available in sufficient quantities, we can test the groups at risk very regularly and with a low threshold,” Drosten told the newspaper. “Also, you can determine not only if someone is infected, but also if they are infectious. This can make it easier to handle quarantine or contact bans.” Expect more use of the tests in a few weeks.
In everyday life, Drosten advises constant caution: “It would be better if we all pretended to be infected and want to protect others from infection.” At the same time, the tables can be turned by pretending that “the other is infected and we want to protect ourselves. This is how our behavior turns out.”
14,177 new infections in Germany
Shortly before the partial blockade began, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 14,177 new corona infections in one day. However, the number of cases registered is usually lower on Sundays than during the week, also because fewer tests are carried out on weekends. Exactly a week ago, 11,176 new infections were reported in one day. The number of deaths in Germany related to the virus increased by 29 to a total of 10,481.
A look at North Rhine-Westphalia shows how tense the situation in the crown is: now the entire state has been declared a risk area. With the district of Soest, the last region of North Rhine-Westphalia also exceeded the limit of 50 new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants in a week over the weekend. The situation in Duisburg is more critical: in seven days 256.1 new cases of corona were counted among 100,000 inhabitants.
Every tenth health department is overloaded
With the increasing number of cases, more and more health authorities are reaching their limits. 38 out of around 400 offices indicated overload for Friday, as announced by the RKI. Almost one in ten offices are reaching or expecting their capacity limits in the next few days. According to the RKI, there were 22 such reports on October 20, which are divided into three categories based on the degree of congestion.
The bottlenecks in health authorities are related to the monitoring of contact persons, in some cases also to outbreak management or other infection control tasks. Full contact tracking is considered a key element in fighting a pandemic. The RKI had already described as “serious and worrying” the excessive demands of some health authorities a week and a half ago. You must keep up your efforts and not give up.
Bundeswehr supports health authorities
In Berlin, due to office overload, positive cases are now first tracked in risk groups. Other citizens are asked to quarantine immediately if the corona test is positive and to inform their contacts themselves first. The office will contact you later.
Many German health authorities receive support to trace contacts of soldiers in the Bundeswehr. “We are now active in one out of every two health departments,” Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said in an interview with RTL and ntv television channels. Around 4,000 soldiers are deployed to fight the corona pandemic. The number has roughly doubled in a week.
Clinic collapse warnings
So that there is no complete overload in intensive care units, the federal and state governments want to take countermeasures this month with drastic restrictions on public life. However, there are already signs of a critical situation in many clinics. Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans warned in “Bild am Sonntag”: “The situation is terrifying and alarming: many of the 1,900 hospitals in Germany could soon collapse.” Precisely in this situation, where every place of intensive care and ventilation is urgently needed, clinics would be left without supply, wards would be closed and emergency rooms would be canceled. “The reason is that there is a lack of nursing staff or is sick.”
The president of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), Uwe Janssens, added to the newspaper: “Very clear: there is not much space left in some federal states. Berlin only has 14 percent of free intensive care beds , Bremen 17 percent. “This is also because” many clinics are still carrying out their routine programs, gastric bypass, joint operations. ” Otherwise, there is a risk of ruin for many as long as there are no flat rate vacancies, such as in April. “At the time, the situation was much less dramatic than what we are facing now.”
