Covid-19
Omicron wave: Health insurance companies are reporting more sick leave
A test center employee takes a nasal swab for a corona test. Photo: Kira Hofmann/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
There have never been so many sick leave from the health insurance companies since the beginning of the corona pandemic. Brandenburg is currently most affected.
According to an evaluation by the Barmer health insurance company, more people are unable to work during the current corona wave than at any time since the beginning of the pandemic.
From February 13th to 19th, 52,100 employees insured with Barmer were on sick leave due to a corona infection, according to the health insurance company. At the peak of the first corona wave, there were up to 25,100 people in employment – about half as many. Last year, an average of around 10,430 Barmer policyholders were entitled to sick pay per week because of an infection with the virus.
Brandenburg is currently most affected, the health insurance company said. During this period, around 221 out of 10,000 employees were on sick leave. The national average is 139 out of 10,000. According to this, there are the fewest sick leave in Schleswig-Holstein, where 72 out of 10,000 insured employees are unable to work due to Corona. According to a spokesman, a total of 4.2 million workers are insured with Barmer, and 3.8 million were included in the evaluation.
According to the health insurance company AOK Nordost, the number of sick leave in Berlin has recently reached a new record. In the first ten calendar weeks of the year 2022, around 310,000 sick leave from insured persons in Berlin were received, a spokesman said on Tuesday. In the three previous years, there had been an average of only around 167,000 sick leave in this period. “The high incidence of corona has driven the sick leave in Berlin to the highest level ever recorded,” said the cash register.