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Nicole Graner
It was a constant up and down. The seven-day incidence in Munich has jumped between more than 300 and 400 in the past two weeks. Now, however, 8,393 new corona cases were reported in one week, increasing the incidence to 564. In the Munich clinics, 234 beds are currently occupied by corona patients. 22 people suffering from Corona are in the intensive care unit. Because the statistical consulting laboratory of the Institute for Statistics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) has technical problems, there is currently no new reproduction number for the state capital.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) would like to only make free rapid tests available to selected groups of people such as people with symptoms, small children, pregnant women, refugees from Ukraine as well as nursing homes and hospitals. However, the social and health departments of the city of Munich are calling for free citizen tests to continue to be possible. They are, says social officer Dorothee Schiwy (SPD), “indispensable”. People living in residential care facilities should continue to be able to receive regular visits from relatives and friends. The current situation is also pushing more and more people into poverty. According to Schiwy, Munich reacted to this with the lunch and participation budgets. If Covid 19 tests had to be paid for yourself, “that would counteract this voluntary service by the city,” says the speaker.
Health officer Beatrix Zurek (SPD) also makes it clear that the number of infections will continue to rise in the coming weeks. Therefore, she says, citizens should “continue to have the right to find out easily and without financial effort whether they are infected”.