Corona pandemic
Montgomery: “We are all preparing for a triage”
An intensive care nurse takes care of a patient. Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Patients have to be relocated, the number of infections is constantly breaking records, and the situation is worsening in schools. The Bundeswehr wants to help overburdened hospitals.
The situation in hospitals is worsening dramatically in view of the rapidly increasing number of people infected with corona. The chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, sounded the alarm.
“We’re all preparing for a triage,” Montgomery told the Funke media group newspapers. The doctors did everything they could to avert this last dire decision. “But in view of the increasing number of infections, the clinics have to prepare,” said Montgomery.
Triage means that medical professionals must decide who to help first due to scarce resources. This Friday (9 a.m.) the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) wants to express itself at an online press conference on prioritization and triage in Covid-19.
Transfer of patients
In order to relieve the clinics, the Bundeswehr is preparing flights for the transfer of intensive care patients from today. The Air Force has two aircraft ready for the relief mission. As part of the so-called cloverleaf system, Covid 19 patients should be able to be distributed nationwide if hospitals are threatened with collapse in individual regions. Occasionally, patients were brought to other federal states yesterday, for example from Thuringia to Lower Saxony. Montgomery doesn’t go far enough. He calls for sick people to be transferred to other European countries: “The systematic transfer of Covid patients abroad must now be initiated. The Bundeswehr also has to help. “
Consequences for patients
The chairman of the board of the German Hospital Society (DKG), Gerald Gaß, complained about the effects of canceled operations. The consequences for patients beyond the pandemic are as dramatic as they are tragic. 75 percent of all hospital locations with intensive care units today reported only limited operation. “Specifically, this means that, as in January 2021, we will again not be able to care for almost every third patient in the regular system,” he wrote in a guest post for the “Rheinische Post” (Friday). “We will perform around 20 percent fewer operations on colon cancer and around seven percent fewer operations on women with breast cancer,” wrote Gass. The situation of being put on a waiting list is difficult to bear mentally and physically for every single cancer patient.
Opinions on corona regulations
The current regulations for combating corona are met with a mixed response among citizens. According to the “Deutschlandtrend” for the ARD “Morgenmagazin”, 53 percent of the population consider the new Infection Protection Act to be correct without the possibility of lockdowns, school closings or curfews. According to the survey, 40 percent think it’s wrong.
The aspect of school closings in particular could become important. According to the weekly report from the Robert Koch Institute on Thursday evening, there are again significantly more corona outbreaks in schools. “After a brief decline during the autumn holidays, a very rapid increase is now being observed.” Accordingly, 1265 outbreaks were last reported within four weeks, it said. The last two weeks are not yet assessable. On average, it hits younger students more often than older ones.
The number of corona outbreaks in schools is currently “very clearly” above the maximum level of the second wave. At the beginning of November, around three times more outbreaks were reported per week than in the previous year at this time. “Given the increased frequency of outbreaks, the easier transferability of the delta variant and the expanded test activities probably play a role, with infections, including asymptomatic ones, being detected early.”
In the fourth corona wave, according to the RKI, there are a particularly large number of positive corona proofs on children and adolescents. The seven-day incidence in the week up to last Sunday was more than twice as high in the 5 to 9 year olds (829) and in the 10 to 14 year olds (921) as the average for the population (414). However, students are also tested for Corona particularly frequently.