Red is the new green. While the Corona warning app was green more often than red during the entire pandemic period and many hardly reported a risky encounter, the app now mostly remains red. What was predicted at the beginning of the omicron wave is now happening: Employees in administration, in rescue services, in childcare facilities and in the catering trade are sometimes ill in rows. This presents facilities with major logistical challenges.
The authorities
The ranks in his authority have thinned due to numerous infections: District Administrator Christoph Göbel.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
No one can escape the virus straight away. Due to many sick employees, the Neuried town hall had to close the doors to party traffic last week and this applies until further notice. Although the employees should be able to be reached by telephone, this was not guaranteed in some cases. “Several colleagues are ill,” says Markus Crhak (Bündnis Zukunft Neuried/BZN), second mayor. For this reason, a PCR test for all employees was arranged in the town hall last week. Until the results were available, the healthy colleagues were also in quarantine. “The operation is running with delays and congestion,” says Crhak. It is no different in Planegg. The residents’ registration office is particularly affected. Instead of five employees, one has to do the work in some places. “We can only do what is absolutely necessary,” said Stefan Schaudig, manager of the municipality. In the district office, too, the “rows have been thinned enormously,” said District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU), who had to go into quarantine himself at the beginning of March and organize accommodation for the refugees from Ukraine from home. The district administrator was even able to gain something positive from the situation: In isolation, he was able to deal with the topic more intensively because face-to-face appointments were canceled. And, of course, local councils too. The Greens/Independent List group in Gräfelfing was missing from the committee last week – three group members are currently infected.
The social support services
“We have had a lot of positive cases for two weeks,” says Julia Krill from the Malteser relief service, which runs its office in Gräfelfing. Only in the past few days had three employees tested positive when they started a shift in the rescue service. They could be replaced by other colleagues at short notice. “Everyone helps together, but it requires extreme coordination.” So far, no rescue service shift or any other transport or food service has had to be cancelled. The relief service now has its own rapid PCR test to be able to quickly rule out false-positive rapid tests among employees. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the aid service has been working in permanent teams to contain infections among themselves and to be able to completely replace shifts. But “Omicron showed a different reality,” says Krill. Increasingly, employees are becoming infected in various teams at the same time, so that shifts have to be reshuffled.
The clinics
The Wolfart Clinic in Gräfelfing is currently missing around five percent of the nursing staff. About four weeks ago, the omicron wave was much more rampant, said Tilmann Götzner, managing director of the Wolfart Klinik. Stations had to be closed because there was a lack of staff, and patients were transferred to other stations. One or the other operation had to be postponed. At the moment, no single rooms can be offered to the otherwise available extent. In addition to the nursing staff, there are also patients who do not show up for the planned surgery because they are infected. The Isar-Amper-Klinikum based in Haar and day clinics throughout the region are feeling the effects of the Omicron wave. “Employees from all areas are sick or in isolation,” says clinic spokesman Henner Lüttecke. But the supply is guaranteed. We prepared for everything at the beginning of the pandemic.
The gastronomy
“Anything that can walk upright helps,” says Unterhachinger landlord Sepp Schwabl.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
On Wednesday afternoon, the 200 seats in the beer garden in the Wirtshaus am Sportpark in Unterhaching are already fully occupied in the most beautiful sunshine, the service staff rotates. “There is currently a 50 percent shortage of employees due to corona infections,” says landlord Sepp Schwabl. He is currently recruiting everyone who has worked in the inn before, and he himself also lends a hand, “everything that can walk upright helps”. The beer garden season started under significantly “difficult conditions”. The staff crisis does not lead to more relaxation, emphasizes the host. All employees are tested daily, there is a separate test station in-house. In the Forst Kasten beer garden near Neuried, landlady Johanna Barsy is still eagerly awaiting how the season will start. The beer garden only opens during the week from April 1st. But she already had sleepless neighbors. The search for service personnel – whether infected or not – is generally difficult. Many helpers have reoriented themselves during the pandemic.
The schools
Gabriele Frohberg-Hintzen, headmistress at the St. Emmeram secondary school in Aschheim, does not see the mask in class falling so quickly.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
As head of the St. Emmeram Realschule in Aschheim, Gabriele Frohberg-Hintzen worries every morning about what the day will bring. A teacher can always be absent during the peak phase of the corona pandemic. Then you have to rearrange and adjust the timetable. It gets really difficult when a teacher becomes pregnant. Because in Corona times that means that she is out immediately. “Then she is no longer allowed to enter the school,” says Frohberg-Hintzen and reports how online lessons are then organized quickly, whereby a so-called “team teacher” has to be used for this, too, who supervises the class Has. And finding such a temporary worker is “difficult at the moment”. Especially after the carnival holidays, the cases of infection among students and teachers increased. The Corona failures in the college are trying to “catch up as best as possible”. For the healthy on board, this is a “huge additional burden”. Frohberg-Hintzen does not see the mask at her school falling so quickly. Because it stays as soon as there is a case of infection among students or teachers in a class. And this is currently the case in many classes. At the Neukeferloh elementary school in Grasbrunn, two teachers are currently constantly affected, says Rector Christine Neumann. “It goes on like this.” The school can deal with that, it hopes that it won’t happen again.
The police
Armin Ganserer, head of the Ottobrunn police inspection, caught Corona himself.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Nobody has to worry about safety. Armin Ganserer, head of the Ottobrunn Police Inspectorate, can calm things down. The 24-hour service of his office is secured. The police are also affected with cases of infection and quarantine as a result of the corona wave. The boss himself had become infected. He was suffering from chills and cold symptoms and was still off a lot until a few days ago. And it also gets the colleagues. “This goes beyond the normal sick leave,” says Ganserer. “We’ve had increasing numbers over the past three weeks.” However, through reallocations, it is possible to ensure the necessary number of staff during the day and at night. “We juggle.” Protection against infections is only possible to a limited extent, especially with the police. Because the officials would have to go out to the people. The most important thing, says Ganserer, is that there are no difficult courses. Nobody wants to see a colleague in the hospital. So far, the staff gaps in the inspection department have been able to be closed internally.
The senior center
After two and a half years of tireless efforts to keep the corona virus out of the house, all of the wards are currently in Habacht-Sellung again in the Stift am Parksee of the Board of Trustees for Living in Age in Unterhaching. Because the easily contagious omicron variant takes its toll. At the moment, the director of the monastery, Alexandra Kurka-Wöbking, is concerned with maintaining care and provision. “We are actually struggling with staff shortages,” she says. And every morning the question arises as to what the day will bring. The staff is tested in-house and if tests are positive, action must be taken quickly. The employees who protected themselves as best as possible would then be taken off duty as quickly as possible, says Kurka-Wöbking. An emergency plan has been set up and on-call service has been set up. She herself then goes into care and everyone who has the appropriate qualifications. The vaccination rate in the house is very high. According to Kurka-Wöbking, one of 110 employees is not vaccinated. What is decisive is the inner “attitude” of each individual, she says.