“The pandemic is not over yet, and the current political dispute is endangering our ability to treat patients,” Michael Weber from the Association of Senior Hospital Physicians told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
Weber said that 20 percent of hospitals were still complaining about excessive strain on their emergency care facilities.
He said that this was reason enough for state governments to start activating the “hotspot” clause in the new Disease Control Law, which allows for the reintroduction of face masks in indoor areas and social distancing.
A good ten percent of beds in general and intensive care units continue to be occupied by patients with Covid symptoms, Weber said.
Surveys suggest that hospitals are still postponing surgeries due to the fact that so many staff have tested positive for the virus.
Cases sink
The warning comes despite the fact that registered new cases of infection are falling sharply.
The 7-day incidence fell to 1,098 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Sunday morning from 1,142 on Saturday and 1,181 on Friday. A week ago, an incidence of 1,458 was recorded.
Health departments in Germany reported 55,471 new infections on Sunday. A further 36 deaths were recorded nationwide within 24 hours, compared with 42 a week ago.
Easter testing
With Easter coming up next weekend, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and Family Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) called on people to use antigen testing and masks when visiting family.
“The number of cases is declining sharply. To keep it that way, everyone should get tested before an Easter trip or test themselves,” Lauterbach wrote on Twitter. He also advised people to voluntarily wear masks indoors.
Controversy over vaccine purchases
According to the Health Ministry, Germany still has 77 million doses of Covid vaccine in stock, more than 10 million of which will reach their expiration date by the end of June. A further 50 million will pass the expiration date in the third quarter.
It has ordered a total of 677 million vaccine doses for the period between 2021 and 2023, more than half of them from Biontech/Pfizer.
The health policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Tino Sorge (CDU), accused Lauterbach of a “shopping frenzy” in an interview with Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
“The minister no longer knows any limits when it comes to ordering vaccines. He orders whatever is there – the actual need and the costs no longer play any role for him,” Sorge said. In view of the tight budget situation, he warned that Lauterbach would have to account for “what costs have been incurred by the federal budget as a result of his unnecessary orders.”
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Are we still pretending that the removal of unvaccinated healthcare professionals has nothing to do with hospitals struggling? They canceled that in the UK because they would have lost 10% of qualified doctors (plus other staff.) The intensive care numbers are now the lowest they have been since November 1st 2021. Although I would have expected numbers in hospital to rise when such a large number of people are infected. How many of these patients are there for other reasons? Why in this day and age where we have access to so much information can we not find out any details other than hospitals full.
As for the sheer jaw dropping numbers of vaccines ordered. Thats, (my maths is not fantastic) about 8 doses per man woman and child. Why did we need to order that many?
I con only come up with a couple of explanations.
The government were grossly incompetent
Corporate greed.
They knew repeated jabs were needed and they led us on with untruths. Which would pose the question of which other assertions made by both governments are fundamentally untrue.
Data from Israel shows the 4th jab to loose its efficacy after just 6 weeks. So we get a booster every 6 weeks and wear masks and test forever?
There’s far too many people around now that want a return to lunacy. Nothing we have done in the last 2 years has made a difference. What would change this time?. Numbers have gone up and down regardless of lockdowns or unvaxxed only lockdowns. Or double masks and triple shots. We could go down the zero covid route locking down entire cities and starving the populous. Its working so well with their record daily case numbers. With drones asking people to ignore the souls desire for freedom. Smells like a utopia to me.
I’ve written too much and this is probably going too go into the memory hole. At least I have all this time on my hands.