Tuesday, August 18, 2020
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The Bavarian Health Minister Huml knew about the Corona test breakdowns earlier than she had previously admitted. The Greens assume that Prime Minister Söder would not turn down an offer from the minister to resign this time.
The Bavarian Health Minister Melanie Huml was aware of the Corona test breakdown on the highways in Bavaria much earlier than she had previously admitted. As early as Monday of last week, the ministry was informed by email that tens of thousands of travelers are waiting for their test results, including several hundred infected people. This is reported by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
It was not until Wednesday, two days later, that the CSU politician informed the public about the breakdown. She said that “the overall situation of the problem” only emerged on the morning of that day. She also emphasized that there was “nothing to gloss over”.
Huml confirmed the SZ’s report to the German press agency. But it was not about a “concealment”. Rather, in the mail on Monday, a solution was presented to her by the following Tuesday, how the problem could be solved. After this “hope” was not confirmed by Wednesday, “we acted immediately and informed the public”.
“Söder will not turn down another offer of resignation”
According to the SZ, among others, Huml’s ministerial office and its head of office received the said email from the State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) on Monday at 12.30 p.m. In it, the laboratory company Eurofins, which evaluates the corona tests for travelers returning to three Bavarian motorways, reports massive problems. Specifically, there are more than 40,000 samples and 338 positive cases that have not yet been submitted. When Huml then publicly announced the breakdown on Wednesday, the numbers had risen to 44,000 samples and more than 900 positive results.
The Bavarian Greens criticized that Huml’s actions had lost two valuable days. “At that time you could have gone to the press and asked the testers for caution, even if they still have no result,” said the health policy spokeswoman for the Greens parliamentary group in the Bavarian state parliament, Christina Haubrich. “This might have prevented the contagion that has now occurred,” Haubrich told ntv.de. The member of the state parliament did not demand Huml’s resignation, but she said the process shows “how overwhelmed the health minister is with the current situation”.
Prime Minister Markus Söder expressed his confidence in Huml last Thursday. After his presentation, the minister had offered him her resignation, but he refused – the leadership also includes “bargaining” in difficult times, said Söder. At the same time he spoke of a “serious mistake”. Green politician Haubrich said with a view to the two-day delay, now the question arises, “whether Mr. Söder knew about it or not”. “I assume that Mr. Söder will not turn down another offer to resign from Mrs. Huml.”
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