The other day the Ebersberg District Clinic was looking for a free intensive care bed in the area for a patient. But no chance – everything is occupied. “The closest hospital that was ready to be admitted was in Ulm,” says Stefan Huber, managing director of the Ebersberger Klinik. That describes well how grim the situation is at the moment. “Upper Bavaria is facing a collapse when it comes to intensive care medicine,” says Huber. Describing the current situation in the corona pandemic as worrying would, in his opinion, be trivialized: “We are completely drunk.” The development could soon also have consequences: If the seven-day incidence in Ebersberg remains above 300, the district is considered a hotspot – and citizens have to adhere to stricter rules again.
In fact, the situation in the district has worsened massively within a few weeks. The seven-day incidence has now been over 300 for two days – such values had never been recorded in the district before. In Frauenneuharting the value is even 1900 – in the small community 30 new infections were reported in the past seven days. A total of 714 people in the district are currently infected.
And more Covid-19 patients are also arriving at the district clinic. Six of them are currently being treated in the intensive care unit, “all in very poor condition,” as Stefan Huber explains. It turns out that many of those affected seek medical treatment very late: “They still think it’s like flu that goes away again.” The youngest patient in intensive care is currently 47 years old. The age of the patient also affects the length of treatment. Younger people can fight the disease longer; according to Huber, they receive intensive care for an average of six to eight weeks, while the first corona waves, in which older people were particularly affected, were more like four to five weeks. And now winter is only just beginning – in the past year the situation has worsened month by month from this point onwards, says Huber, “why should it be any different this time?”
The fact that there is a vaccination against the malicious virus this winter, unlike last year, is slowing down development a little, but not enough. “The vaccination rate is miserable, we are far from herd immunity and a good situation,” says Huber. “Many have still not understood that there are only two options: Either they get vaccinated or they become infected – there is no third option.” But not only the poor vaccination rate worries the head of the hospital, also the general carelessness of the people. It is already being acted as if the pandemic was over, he says, but it is still a long way off.
The extremely tense situation not only means that the district clinic can no longer admit new corona patients to the intensive care unit. Otherwise it will be tight. According to Huber, there are no longer any free intensive care beds in almost all of the Munich area: the university hospitals Rechts der Isar and Großhadern are just as full as the German Heart Center, the Bogenhausener, the Schwabinger and Harlachingen hospitals, the Agatharied clinic, the Schön-Klinik Bad Aibling and the Clinics in Rosenheim, Freising, Erding and also Ebersberg. Of course, seriously ill patients, for example after accidents, are still cared for, but then the search for an intensive care bed begins in which optimal treatment is possible – which is becoming increasingly difficult. And what if a serious accident with many injured happens anyway? “You don’t even want to think about it,” says Huber. In any case, Huber has already called on his friends and relatives to be extremely careful in order to avoid emergency care in the hospital in any case. Huber assumes that the district clinic – as in the previous corona waves – will soon have to postpone planned operations again.
The district office therefore once again joins Huber’s appeal to be vaccinated: “Against the background of the current pandemic and the increasingly tense situation in the clinics, all district citizens who have not yet been able to decide to have a vaccination, If you consciously accept the severe course of a Covid 19 disease, you should also take into account that he or she will then need and claim a place in the intensive care unit of a clinic – a place that might kill someone who needs a tumor operation, for example, “says a current press release from the district office.
There you have to deal with possible new restrictions again, as announced by Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) for hotspots. These should apply from Saturday, if Ebersberg – as is currently the case – still meets the criteria for a hotspot, 2G will be introduced in many facilities and events where the 3G rule previously applied, so only those who have been vaccinated and who have recovered , but not tested access. The gastronomy, accommodation companies and body-friendly services are excluded here. Here it stays with 3G plus. In addition, the 3G rule would then also apply in the workplace in many areas.