District Administrator Robert Niedergesäß (CSU) has been dealing with the topic of corona almost every day for two years, and now he can also contribute his own experiences on the subject: he survived his infection with the omicron variant of the virus well, he said at a press conference on Tuesday morning , his first day at work after the illness. His test was positive during the Christmas vacation, and apart from a sore throat and a slightly blocked nose, he didn’t notice much of the infection, says Niedergesäß, who had received his booster vaccination in December.
So far, Omikron in the Ebersberg district also seems to have had less serious consequences than Delta, despite the massive increase in the number of infections – on Tuesday the seven-day incidence was 864.7 – and the fact that more than half of the new infections can be attributed to Omikron . The situation in the district clinic is still comparatively calm compared to the delta wave. Ten patients with a corona infection are currently being treated there, only one person is in the intensive care unit. “At the moment, the situation in the clinic is not worrying, despite the significantly increasing incidences,” says Brigitte Keller, head of the Corona crisis team in the district office.
The vaccination center will continue to operate beyond March
Nevertheless, the team in the crisis management team hopes that the vaccination rate in the Ebersberg district will increase significantly in order to continue to be as well prepared as possible against the virus. Vaccination coverage has not yet surpassed the 70 percent mark, but skeptics may still decide to vaccinate when the protein vaccine Novavax becomes available. This vaccine is also known as an inactivated vaccine, it does not contain any pathogens capable of reproduction and may also convince those who have so far refrained from the corona vaccination due to skepticism about the new mRNA and vector vaccines. However, it is still unclear when this vaccine will arrive in the Ebersberg district. Although the drug is now approved in the EU, it will probably take some time before it is delivered, we are talking about mid-February. So far, Niedergesäß says that no information on the schedule has been received from the higher-level authorities, but I hope that will change soon.
It is now clear that the vaccination center in the former district savings bank building at the train station can also be operated beyond March. The Free State has already promised that the vaccination centers should remain open until the end of the year. However, this time the district cannot simply extend the contract with the Tresec company, which has been operating the vaccination center since the end of December 2020; a new tender is necessary, says Keller, “of course this means a lot of administrative work”.
However, the focus is not only on people going to the vaccination center or to the resident doctors to get their corona protection. In fact, there is very little going on in the vaccination center at the moment, the number of initial vaccinations is low, days with three-digit numbers are not the rule, says Keller. We therefore continue to rely on the use of mobile teams and above all on the vaccination days in the communities, where cooperation with the local clubs plays an important role. Skeptics would probably be most likely to be convinced by familiar contacts.