:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elfinanciero/CAWCAEQM45CYZIG4JDSHEEXVTM.jpg "Due to COVID-19, the German authorities report the saturation of the hospital – El Financiero")
The rapid increase in COVID-19 infections in a new autumn wave it is pushing hospitals in Germany to the limit of their capacity, according to the president of the Association of German Hospitals, Gerald Gaß.
The number of occupied beds positive patients increased by 50 percent from last week and hospitals are facing “extremely difficult weeks,” he told the media group “RND”.
The director of the Intensive Medicine Registry (DIVI), Christian Karagiannidis, explained to this same media group that in some German regions there are already pockets where there are hardly any free beds in the intensive care units.
According to DIVI data, there are currently about 1,660 COVID positive patients hospitalized in German intensive care, of which about 50% require treatment for the effects of the virus
COVID affects hospital staff in Germany
Infections between hospital staff and the consequent sick leave represent a further problem for medical centers, which already operate with a chronic shortage of professionals.
For this reason, the Hospital Association does not exclude that in the near future it will be necessary that some centers once again cancel non-urgent interventions or close some wings to new admissions.
According to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for virology, on Tuesday, October 11, the cumulative seven-day incidence stood at 799.9 new infections per 100,000 inhabitantswhile a week ago they were 374 and a month ago 220.9.
On the same Tuesday 11 October, 136,748 new cases were detected and 199 deaths were recorded.
However, this statistic is only influenced by positives detected with PCR tests, which are currently only performed on specific occasions, so experts speculate that the true figure is three to five times higher.
The German health authorities believe this the country is at the beginning of a seventh wave and warned that this time could be accompanied by a flu epidemic, since last winter the restrictions due to the pandemic have reduced the number of cases of this disease.
For this reason, the Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, advised that those over 60 receive a combination of the fourth anti-COVID dose – the second booster – and the flu shot.
