There is one topic that drives her, says the city’s health officer, Beatrix Zurek (SPD). What will the new Omikron coronavirus variant bring? The situation is still clear: since the first suspected case on November 29, as of Thursday, 14 more have been added, seven of which have been confirmed, reports Zurek. “Omikron has arrived, but not on a large scale yet.” However, Zurek remembers that she said the same sentence some time ago with the Delta variant. Weeks later, Delta had replaced all other variants.
Not all laboratories in Munich are even able to detect the new variant using variant-specific PCR tests – and those who can do this on around ten percent of the samples, says Zurek in the city council’s health committee. The genome sequencing currently took about three to six weeks – “not very productive,” she commented. Omikron is also worried about others in the health committee, which is meeting digitally this Thursday. “Could it be that we are simply under the radar?” Asks Hans Theiss from the CSU parliamentary group in the city council. The answer to his question will probably be revealed in a few weeks.
Meanwhile, the health officer has high hopes for the vaccinations. The city vaccination teams alone have recently cracked the million mark for vaccinations. Together with the resident doctors, more than 2.2 million vaccinations were administered. “That is a great logistical achievement,” emphasizes Zurek.
Logistics is and will remain the greatest challenge when it comes to vaccination. The delivery of the specially portioned children’s vaccinations from Biontech / Pfizer, for example, has been announced for next Monday. “I hope it stays that way,” says the speaker, because the city’s further planning depends on it: In Riem and also in the new vaccination station in Gasteig, it should be possible to vaccinate children from the age of five from December 15.
Another imponderability has not yet been fully clarified: Registrations for the dates are not yet possible, “because the system has not yet been adjusted,” said Zurek. By this she means the Bavarian vaccination portal Bayimco, which is controlled by the Ministry of Health. She expects the reprogramming to take place “in the coming days”. And if not, you will step in with your own system.
The Munich Clinic is worried about the financial losses
Vaccination is also progressing steadily in schools, reports Zurek. In the meantime, vaccination campaigns have been organized in 85 schools and 3900 vaccinations have been administered. The plans for further actions extended into January. The vaccination of children from the age of five also offers “further opportunities” to immunize schoolchildren, says the speaker.
Christian Zollner from the fire department in Munich is still cautious about the seven-day incidence, which has been slowly falling since the end of November. He reports from the crisis team that the infection process has apparently stabilized, but that he has not yet “seen a correct downward trend”. The bed situation is also still tense: 310 normal and 137 intensive care beds are currently occupied in Munich. The fact that, thanks to the cloverleaf principle, about seven or eight seriously ill Covid patients could be brought from Munich to other federal states recently, the situation eased for a short time, says Zollner.
The specialist clinics that have been obliged to supply Covid since last week would also absorb a little of the strain, says Axel Fischer, managing director of the Munich City Clinic. They have “reached a plateau” for a few days. He hopes that the number of patients will not continue to rise, said Fischer. What worries him, however, are the financial losses of the past few months. “We are going into the new year with advance payments and uncertainty” – this is where the new federal government is called upon.