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HIf you lose taste or itch your throat, do you feel flabby and short of breath …? ”. He knows how often Sascha Laferski checks typical corona symptoms on the phone every day to find out if the person on the other end of the line has been infected with the virus. No. It will be around 20, estimate.
He and three other men sit in the meeting room of the Eimsbüttel district office, which has been converted into an office, and make phone calls or do research on the Internet. The people you have to contact during the day can be found in a list compiled by the Hamburg Pandemic Manager, a computer program in which all the details of those who tested positive and their contact persons are entered.
This Thursday there are particularly many. Also in Hamburg, where the numbers have developed moderately for a long time, the situation is reaching a critical point: with 276 recently infected people they topped the highest result of Thursday’s first wave for the first time. The high incidence of new cases, coupled with the fact that, unlike the first peak phase, infected people go to work and sports, to birthdays and weddings until they learn of the diagnosis, is increasingly a confrontation with the district health authorities. Definitive test.
Sascha Laferski is on call to quickly identify chains of infection and prevent new ones. The noncommissioned officer is actually an IT specialist and is stationed in the Bundeswehr in Husum. As part of the administrative assistance that the Eimsbüttel district office requested two weeks ago, it is now supporting the employees of the local health department. A total of 66 soldiers and 10 doctors currently support the health authorities in all seven districts of Hamburg, and another 18 members of the German armed forces will join next week.
Sascha Laferski is responsible for notifying contact persons in Category 1. This is the name of those who have recently had contact with a person who tested positive for Corona. “If you have a cell phone number, it is relatively easy. It gets complicated when you have to determine them first. For example, when an infected person has visited a gym or participated in an event, ”says the 26-year-old.
He recently had a case where the trail went all the way to Aberdeen in Scotland. It took a precious 24 hours to get the woman in question on the line. Laferski wanted to know for her if she had talked to the infected person for more than 15 minutes without observing a minimum requirement of distance and mask. No, he did not do it. He spoke to the infected person, but kept his distance. However, she played it safe and was tested. Negative result.
The chain of infection is still being traced.
A total of more than 50 health department employees, as well as some 30 additional workers from other areas, including ten soldiers and two Bundeswehr doctors, are busy seven days a week to monitor the number of infections in Eimsbüttel. For eight months, employees have been in an exceptional situation.
The workload is huge, says the head of the Eimsbüttel health department, Dr. Gudrun Rieger. Thanks to the help of the Bundeswehr, which has also added medical personnel to its team since the beginning of the week, the situation remains under control. Yet he wonders how long it will last. “To stay in control of a situation like this, you always have to be one step ahead of the action. In light of current developments, I wonder what will happen if we can no longer maintain this leadership. “
Dr. Gudrun Rieger heads the Eimsbüttel health department in Hamburg
Source: Bertold Walker
Timely monitoring continues to work and the chains of infection can still be identified and cut. The doctor explains what steps take effect as soon as a person tests positive. On the one hand, the laboratory is obliged to report people with positive test results. In addition, infected people must forward the message to the authorities, after which they order a quarantine.
In the second step, the infected must create lists of contact persons. “And we are often touched because it is clear how neglected many are.” An example: “A person who tested positive attended a wedding the weekend before the diagnosis was made, the next day he went to the gym, ate at a restaurant and took part in a choir rehearsal,” he says. Rieger. “We do not have a confinement, but everyone should behave as if they existed,” he warns.
She estimates that the high number of new infections is partly related to the lax focus of quarantine regulations. Because: “Even a person with no symptoms is highly contagious,” says Rieger. However, not all infections proceed according to the F pattern. Therefore, a department is only in charge of consulting the status of the infected person, communicating the lifting of a quarantine, extending it or ordering another test.
Private Christopher Lischewski, 30, of the 164th Special Pioneer Regiment in Husum, helps here. “Most of the people are very responsible. From time to time you also have to deal with the crown deniers who are upset, or with the mothers who explain to you that you can’t quarantine young children without going crazy. ” Another department takes care of it. the flow of information between the health department and large facilities such as kindergartens and schools, as well as businesses.
The work motto of Dr. Gudrun Rieger, who worked for the containment of epidemics in Africa in the Eimsbüttel district before his time, says: “It can always get worse”. From what we are experiencing now, that is a very healthy motto “, says the 62-year-old woman. What worries you?” When the number of those who die from the virus increases. And if we no longer manage to protect the elderly ” .
In general, the overload of the healthcare system is seen as a horror scenario. “If we want to prevent such a scenario, we have to start by equipping the health authorities. They make sure the virus remains uncontrollable, ”he says. What would it take? “A crown office,” Rieger responds. A place that is equipped with additional staff and only deals with Corona events.
