Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – After a corona outbreak in a Freiburg daycare center, the government in Baden-Württemberg is initially refraining from opening day-care centers and primary schools nationwide. Two children from emergency care were infected with a virus mutation, and more than 20 children and employees of the facility were infected with the corona virus, Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) announced on Wednesday in Stuttgart. It still has to be clarified whether it is also the new virus variants. “Should the mutant already spread to us, we would have to face this new situation,” said Kretschmann. Then the question of opening up primary schools and daycare centers would have to be reassessed.
Health Minister Manne Lucha (Greens) said it was the first case of mutated viruses in a daycare center in the southwest. A total of 13 more cases with the new virus variants across the country became known on Wednesday, said a ministry spokesman, thus correcting the number upwards. There are eight cases in Freiburg and in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district, three in the Ravensburg district and two in the Ortenau district.
The district office in Freiburg declared that the first corona outbreak in the daycare was on January 17th. All 24 people affected since then have been in quarantine and the contacts have been followed up. The Diakonie Baden added that 14 educators and 10 children from the Immergrün day care center are suspected of being infected with a mutated variant of the coronavirus.
According to the findings, the outbreak can be traced back to an educator who initially had no symptoms. “When he suffered from a loss of taste and was immediately tested, he had already passed the virus on,” said a diakonia spokesman. In the day care center, the six groups are separated. But everything speaks for the fact that the virus was then transmitted to members of other groups via contacts in private, said the spokesman for dpa. “The course of the disease was all moderate.” The health department had “recognized the daycare’s hygiene concept as proper and good”.
Four of the six groups are in quarantine. “All groups of the day care center should be able to offer emergency care again on Monday,” the spokesman continued. “The Freiburg case shows how important it is to protect employees. In our opinion, everything should be done for this.” That would mean that educators would have to be prioritized for vaccinations at the latest when the daycare centers open. In addition, equipment with masks must be ensured.
Originally, Kretschmann and Education Minister Susanne Eisenmann (CDU) wanted to announce the decision on Wednesday at 2.30 p.m. that daycare centers and primary schools should gradually be reopened next Monday. In view of the falling number of infections in the country, the decision was considered a formality.
The opening is now on hold. It is questionable whether the topic will be discussed again before the planned end of the nationwide lockdown on February 14th. Kretschmann said: “I have always made it clear that we make the decision about opening depending on the pandemic and that we would be faced with a completely new situation if one of the mutated viruses should manifest itself.” Now you have to be clear before you can make a new decision. Green parliamentary group leader Andreas Schwarz told the dpa: “I advise you to refrain from opening in the next week.”
Eisenmann was “completely surprised”. The case “presented us with a completely new situation,” said the CDU politician in the evening at an online election campaign organized by the state CDU. Your spokeswoman said: “The Ministry of Social Affairs and the State Health Office must first clarify the exact facts.” Only then can you advise on how to proceed.
For the Minister of Education, who had pushed for an opening, the renewed postponement is a setback. She actually wanted to open daycare centers and elementary schools in the interests of children after the Christmas holidays – “regardless of the incidence”. An opening in the corona lockdown was then planned for January 18, but Kretschmann prevented this because the number of infections was too high. In Baden-Württemberg around 450,000 children go to daycare centers and around 382,000 attend a primary school.
The results of the infections with the new virus variants came shortly before 2 p.m., said a government spokesman. Kretschmann and Eisenmann had an appointment to talk about the final decision shortly after 2 p.m. The head of government had already emphasized on Tuesday that if the new, probably more aggressive virus variants from Great Britain or South Africa spread in the southwest, there would be a new situation. “That can lead to drastic measures.” Then easing would have to be reversed.
The variants initially detected in Great Britain (B.1.1.7) and South Africa (B.1.351) are considered highly contagious. According to the State Health Office, both have been isolated in several districts in the south-west since the end of December. The federal government warns that people in Germany have to prepare for an increased spread of particularly contagious corona variants.
The education union GEW opposed to discussing the opening of daycare centers and schools anew every week. “In view of the difficult to assess risk of virus mutations, the daycare centers and schools should not open again until after the carnival break on February 22nd at the earliest. Until then, good concepts for alternating teaching and better protection in day-care centers and schools can be prepared,” said GEW regional director Monika Stein .
Minister Lucha said in the evening that he would offer the minister of education to provide rapid tests from the state’s emergency reserve for emergency care in daycare centers and primary schools. The staff can be tested several times a week. “In view of the worrying mutations, the minister of education is now really called upon to keep the groups in emergency care small and to create the necessary conditions in the day-care centers and schools at short notice to be able to carry out the tests.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210127-99-192578 / 6
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