Wednesday 17th November 2021
Contact rules tightened
Saxony’s clinics are reporting overload
The alarm value for intensive care beds in Saxony has been reached. The state government is therefore pulling the emergency brake and implementing tightening measures ahead of time. A confidential report by the federal government sees dramatic bottlenecks in Thuringia and Bavaria as well.
Saxony has officially reached the corona overload level for its hospital beds. This means that stricter rules and contact restrictions will apply from Friday. Because of the drastically increased number of infections, the state government wants to pass a new corona protection ordinance ahead of time. This would then apply from Monday next week.
Germany is currently struggling with a dramatically escalating corona situation. In addition to Saxony, the number of infections threatens to get out of control, especially in Thuringia and Bavaria. According to the Robert Koch Institute, the seven-day incidence in Saxony was 742, in Thuringia 569 and in Bavaria 568. The national average it reached almost 320. Saxony thus has by far the highest value of all federal states.
As an overload level, 1300 beds occupied by corona patients in the normal wards of the hospitals are set in the Free State. If the value is reached on three days in a row, stricter regulations come into force on the day after the next. On Wednesday 1520 occupied beds were reported, on Tuesday it was 1524 and on Monday 1391.
From Friday onwards, members of a household may only meet with one other person; Vaccinated, convalescent or children up to the age of 16 do not count. The 2G model (vaccinated or recovered) then also applies in retail. This does not apply to supermarkets or drug stores.
Federal government expects escalation in Thuringia
Across Germany, the number of corona patients in intensive care units in hospitals has increased further to 3360. This emerges from the daily overview of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (Divi). The “Handelsblatt” reported on Tuesday that the federal government was expecting dramatic bottlenecks in the intensive care units in the next few weeks.
The sheet quotes from a confidential situation report of the Corona crisis team of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry of Health. After that, bottlenecks are feared, especially in Thuringia. According to the “Handelsblatt” in the report, the capacity utilization of the intensive care beds with corona patients there could more than triple by the beginning of December. The prognosis therefore assumes a constant regional pandemic.
For Bavaria, the forecast, which was drawn up by the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) in collaboration with scientists from the RKI, for example, predicts a capacity utilization of 56 percent in intensive care beds at the beginning of December. This is followed by Saxony (41 percent), Baden-Württemberg (32 percent) and Brandenburg (30 percent), according to the report.