1. Stolper-Start in the vaccination campaign
At the end of December 2020, the first vaccinations against the corona virus were given in the city and district: a sign of hope that will be tarnished again shortly afterwards. The vaccination centers that have just been set up on the Talavera and in Giebelstadt will have to be closed again in the second week of January 2021.
The reason: there is no longer a vaccine. The few doses are planned for the mobile teams who, at the same time, are urgently vaccinating residents in old people’s and nursing homes against the corona virus in the city and district. It will be several weeks before the situation with the supply of vaccine doses slowly eases.
2. Bundeswehr and emergency services support after the Corona outbreak in St. Josefs-Stift in Eisingen
It’s a race against time, but the virus is faster: Shortly before the vaccinations are to start in the Eisinger St. Josefs-Stift, there is a major corona outbreak in the home at the end of January. 40 residents and 38 employees become infected. This also makes it extremely difficult to operate the facility.
Help comes from the Bundeswehr from Veitshöchheim. 14 members of the armed forces, including medical soldiers, are on site in mid-February. Do you help with medical care as well as with the everyday care of the residents? and with them volunteers from auxiliary services such as Malteser, BRK, Johanniter and DLRG. A Bundeswehr soldier is deployed on the internal test track, while other soldiers assisted the administration with handling the vaccinations and series tests, but also with the care and employment of the residents.
3. Testing whenever and wherever possible
Corona tests in the disco or in the pedestrian zone: In the spring, numerous test sites open in the city and district of Würzburg to complement the existing test centers. For example, from April 6th on the grounds of the Airport Discotheque in Würzburg: Test instead of dance! In the first six hours after the opening, 250 corona tests have already been carried out here.
At the end of April, business people from the “New Center Interest Group” open their test tent on Eichhornstrasse and offer citizen tests. On the one hand, customers should perceive the corona test before going shopping as normal and get used to it in the long term, on the other hand, it is also about maintaining business life in the city center despite the pandemic. The offer has been well received from the start.
4. Outrage over emergency braking chaos
Everything happens very quickly at the end of April: The federal emergency brake comes into force on April 24, a Saturday, with which the Bundestag reacts to increased incidence figures. The new measures are knitted with a hot needle, and on the Friday before they come into force it is not clear: may the shops in Würzburg still open on Saturday or not? After all, the incidence was several times over 150.
On Facebook, Wolfgang Weier, managing director of the city marketing “Würzburg is fun”, vented his outrage because the Bavarian Ministry of Health did not even provide information on the website. Only on Friday evening, a few hours before the emergency brake comes into force, is it clear: the shops must remain closed. However, some of the Würzburg business owners no longer find out about this and still open the day after.
5. 40 degrees in the tent: vaccination center on the Talavera closes due to heat
The vaccination campaign had long since got underway in early summer when the medical staff and those vaccinated were faced with the same problem in mid-June: It was too hot! On June 17th, 40 degrees are measured in the vaccination center on the Würzburg Talavera. The tent is ventilated, but not air-conditioned. Several employees complain of health problems as a result of the heat.
The fire brigade will arrive on June 17th to rain the tarpaulin. This makes it possible to lower the temperature to 32 degrees. A second attempt at cooling the next day must be stopped because the water collects under the vaccination center and damage to the electrical installation is to be feared. On the same day it is decided to temporarily close the vaccination center. With temperatures dropping, the situation soon eases.
6. Close vaccination centers ?? and will open again soon afterwards
It is symbolic of the contradicting development of the corona situation: At the end of September, after 268 days, the two vaccination centers in the Würzburg region will close, but just a few weeks later a vaccination center will be reopened in the city and district. In the summer and late summer, the rush to the two vaccination centers on the Würzburg Talavera and Giebelstadt was noticeably reduced, now operating costs should be saved.
Shortly afterwards, the number of infections skyrocketed again, and at the same time the demand for vaccinations increased, especially for booster vaccinations. In November, vaccination centers will be reopened in the city in the former Praktiker hardware store and in the district in the Margarethenhalle in Margetshöchheim.
7. For vaccination in the town hall arcades
It is an unusual picture that appears on the Würzburg town hall arcades from mid-October: a long line forms there during the day. People want to take advantage of vaccination advice. And if you want, you can pick up your corona vaccination right there. Younger people in particular decided to get vaccinated against the corona virus after all, according to the town hall.
Another reason might have been the temporary elimination of the free test options from October 11th. The offer is all the more necessary since the vaccination centers on the Würzburg Talavera and in Giebelstadt had only been closed a few weeks earlier. For the vaccination, people here and at other temporary vaccination sites sometimes accept long waiting times.
8. Dramatic roll call from the Ochsenfurt Main Clinic
These are dramatic impressions that were sent from the Ochsenfurt Main Clinic at the end of November and quickly spread online in a video: A 76-year-old man is in the intensive care unit, he is being ventilated, his body is being supplied through a multitude of tubes. The man was infected with the corona virus, he is not vaccinated.
With the video, Eva von Vietinghoff-Scheel, co-director of the district municipal company (KU), together with clinic boss Christian Schell, appeals to the employees of the KU to get vaccinated. “Please get vaccinated so that you are not the next one in the intensive care unit!”, Says Vietinghoff-Scheel in the video.
What is intended as a call to employees, when it spreads online, it also becomes a call to other people to take advantage of the vaccination offers. A little later, in an interview with the editorial team, Alexander Schraml, co-director of the KU, leaves no doubt about his conviction: “I would also have nothing against the fact that there is a general compulsory vaccination.”
9. Vaccinations as an event: An idea from Leinach makes headlines
At the beginning it was a crazy idea, arose out of the frustration of having to cancel the Leinacher Waldweihnacht again. In the end, the Oberleinach Fire Brigade Association turned it into a vaccination campaign for everyone, to which thousands of people willing to vaccinate come to the Leinachtalhalle on the last weekend in November. “Vaccination event in Advent” is the name of the event, which is also welcomed by the health department.
3000 vaccinations were fully booked in advance within a few days, in the end there are 4683 vaccination doses that will be administered over the weekend in Leinach. After that there has been a lot of positive feedback. The only disappointment: The number of first vaccinations is very low at 206. Most people pick up their booster vaccination.
On the Monday after the vaccination weekend, the event even made it to ARD. In the audience contributions to the discussion program “Hart aber Fair”, Carina Rath from Leinach reports on the vaccination weekend. The contribution also appears on the screen and is presented in the program as an example of the “duty to cooperate” demanded by another viewer for everyone in combating the pandemic.
10: Again ghost games in Würzburg professional sport
The appearance of the new virus variant Omikron at the beginning of December also had consequences for professional sports in the Würzburg region. Again, as in 2020, the actors on the square and in the halls have to play in front of empty spectator seats.
The regulation applies from September 4th and affects the third division footballers of the Würzburger Kickers, the Bundesliga basketball players from s.Oliver Würzburg and the second division handball players from the DJK Rimpar Wölfe.
11: Low case numbers and high vaccination rates
The pandemic management and the vaccination campaign are having an impact. In hardly any other region in Bavaria have the number of cases since the beginning of the corona pandemic been so low and the vaccination rates so high. So far (as of December 27) a total of 9157 people in the district have been verifiably infected with the virus, which corresponds to 5,628 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants, the lowest value in Bavaria. In the city of Würzburg, the value is 7061 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, half as many as in the most severely affected regions in southeast Bavaria.
According to the figures from the Robert Koch Institute, 77.0 percent of the residents of the city and district are now fully vaccinated, while the rate across Bavaria is 69.7 percent. Among the over 60-year-olds in Würzburg, the percentage of completely vaccinated is already 90.8 percent, 65.9 percent of this age group have already received a booster vaccination. A total of over 118,000 people have already been boosted, around 80,000 of them since the beginning of December.
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