City hopes for help from the RKI. Serious situation in old people’s homes in the district.
Offenbach reached a new negative record with a seven-day incidence of 388.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants at the weekend. With these numbers, the city has been at the forefront of the infection rate of all cities in Rhine-Main and Hesse since November 11. The number of corona deaths in Offenbach rose to a total of 23 yesterday, the deceased were between 36 and 102 years old. The Offenbach district, on the other hand, reports “only” an incidence of 230.2, but speaks of a “serious situation” in old people’s and nursing homes.
Why the virus is spreading so much in Offenbach leaves those responsible a little at a loss. It is said that the rapid increase on the weekend results from a statistical effect. On November 14, only eight new cases were recorded, although there were many more. But the evaluation of over 500 precautionary tests in old people’s and nursing homes took several days and now, with a delay, led to the jump in 129 new cases on Friday and Saturday alone.
Mayor Felix Schwenke (SPD) told the FR that he could not explain the development of the past week. He emphasized, however, that going it alone in Offenbach doesn’t make sense if the entire Rhine-Main area is a hotspot with tens of thousands of commuters every day. It is therefore not the hour of the lone warrior, but the hour of a coordinated approach. Together with Offenbach’s head of health, Sabine Groß (Greens), Schwenke advocates a nationwide uniform step model that defines additional measures for particularly affected regions for fixed incidences above a certain value.
The city press spokeswoman Kerstin Holzheimer said that the cause research is currently difficult because the health department is working “on the attack”. The number of unknown sources of infection is very high. Offenbach hoped for support from employees of the Robert Koch Institute who wanted to look at the numbers and then perhaps could explain the infection process.
The numbers reported by Offenbach on the seven-day incidence often differ from those of the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs because the city uses more recent data.
In 14 old people’s and nursing homes in the Offenbach district, residents and employees are currently infected. Around 150 people are affected, according to a press release from the district authority. Haus Elfriede in Rodgau reports the most Covid 19 patients with 31 elderly people and 18 employees, while Haus Jona in Obertshausen has 39 senior citizens and seven employees. The working group for old people’s homes of the health department has ordered the facilities, depending on the possibility, to move the infected to a separate wing of the house or to issue a comprehensive ban on visits.
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