Germany treats first Italians as coronavirus care crosses borders

 

Paramedics Jochen and Julia check the equipment of an ambulance before the start of their shift in Worms, Germany, March 24, 2020 as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

 

BERLIN/MANNHEIM, Germany (Reuters) - German hospitals with spare capacity on Tuesday welcomed their first coronavirus patients from Italy, where an overwhelmed health care system has seen the pandemic kill more people than in any other country.

 

Ahead of an expected larger wave of home-grown infections that German authorities are preparing for, a first group of six Italian patients arrived at Leipzig airport in the eastern state of Saxony on Tuesday morning.

 

The western state of North Rhine-Westphalia also announced plans to take 10 Italian patients over coming days. "We need solidarity across borders in Europe," said state premier Armin Laschet. "We want to preserve the European spirit."

 

Saxony premier Michael Kretschmer said the government in Italy, where confirmed cases of the virus have topped 64,000 and deaths risen above 6,000, had asked for help. Germany was the first country to take in Italian patients.

 

Leipzig's university hospital took two of the transported patients, a spokesman said, both critically ill 57-year-old men moved from intensive care in Bergamo, at the epicentre of Italy's outbreak and where overburdened wards are having to choose who to give life-saving ventilator treatment to.

 

A benefit to Germany from the transfers is that its hospitals will gain valuable further experience in treating coronavirus patients before the country's tally of serious cases soars.

 

Germany has 27,000 confirmed coronavirus cases but only 114 deaths, and is using the time before the expected surge to strengthen its intensive-care capacity.

 

The government is offering hospitals huge state subsidies to help accelerate plans to double that capacity, currently at around 28,000 beds.

 

Germany has also been more rigorous than some other EU countries in testing for coronavirus, one possible factor behind the country's exceptionally low mortality rate.

 

In Italy, where an ageing population is a key factor in the apparently unusually high mortality statistics, the head of the agency collating data on the epidemic told La Repubblica newspaper that he believed as many as 640,000 people could have been infected.

 

German hospitals also took in coronavirus patients from France on Tuesday.

 

"We have still three, five, seven days because we are before the (bigger) wave," Hartmut Bueckle, a spokesman for the university clinic in Freiburg, close to the French border, told Welt TV. "We want to use this time to offer our French neighbours the possibilities we still have for now."

 

Thomas Kirschning, a senior doctor and intensive care coordinator in the western city of Mannheim, said his clinic had taken a recovering 64-year-old French patient from Colmar, where the intensive care capacity is stretched to breaking point.

 

"Colleagues in France are overburdened at the moment," Kirschning told Reuters in a television interview.

 

"At a time when our neighbours urgently need help, we would like to do our part...as an act of cooperation and humanity to take on the patients and help them," he said.

 

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt and Sabine Siebold in Berlin, Reuters TV in Mannheim, and Matthias Inverardi in Duesseldorf; Editing by John Stonestreet and Mark Heinrich)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-25

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So where are you EU-naysayers now?

Good to see a nation stepping up to help kudos

I have a question: in this situation where are the NGO? Oh, they probably don't care about a pandemic virus, they just care about economic migrants they call asylum seekers or refugees.

That's obviously German character since 75 years..... to help others who need help. ????

This makes perfect sense.

 

It would be useless to Germany to keep the mortality rate down if neighbouring countries harbour huge numbers of infected. The risk of re-infection in Germany is also high if the neighbouring countries can not stem the pandemic.

 

It is in Germany's interest to help its neighbours. 

 

Far-sighted and correct decision.

Edited March 25, 20206 yr by Logosone

6 hours ago, pacovl46 said:

So where are you EU-naysayers now?

Nothing to do with it, its called humanity.

 

Good try though, although also a cheap shot to try and drag Brexit up during a pandemic.

Edited March 25, 20206 yr by sungod

It's all a good use of resources, why let spare capacity sit idle?

 

And German doctors can learn valuable information from more advanced cases.

 

 

Germany's health care is not FREE so I will hold off the praise for a few seconds. I hope for Germany's people's sake this is not greed dressed up as help. If they are giving the treatment for free we'll done Germany however as I have a sneeky suspension it involves money then not so much..... Hope this doesn't back fire on the German people. 

25 minutes ago, Scot123 said:

Germany's health care is not FREE so I will hold off the praise for a few seconds. I hope for Germany's people's sake this is not greed dressed up as help. If they are giving the treatment for free we'll done Germany however as I have a sneeky suspension it involves money then not so much..... Hope this doesn't back fire on the German people. 

Well, precisely because it's not free somebody should pay for it.

 

I strongly suspect it will be the German taxpayer.

9 hours ago, pacovl46 said:

So where are you EU-naysayers now?

Germany are not the EU (although some might argue they are!). This is a good gesture from the Germans while they have the capacity. 

 

The German death rate from C19 is still unbelievably low. Some experts suggest this is due to the aggressive testing regime in Germany, meaning that the number of reported infections is higher. Most other countries are not including healthy low risk people with the virus, because they are not being tested. I think this explains it ????

3 hours ago, sungod said:

Nothing to do with it, its called humanity.

 

Good try though, although also a cheap shot to try and drag Brexit up during a pandemic.

The reason I’ve posted that was because when they’ve posted the article that said that Germany didn’t give any face masks to Italy the forum was littered with posts by Brexiteers saying how this was the end of the EU, so where are they know?

10 minutes ago, CG1 Blue said:

Germany are not the EU (although some might argue they are!). This is a good gesture from the Germans while they have the capacity. 

 

The German death rate from C19 is still unbelievably low. Some experts suggest this is due to the aggressive testing regime in Germany, meaning that the number of reported infections is higher. Most other countries are not including healthy low risk people with the virus, because they are not being tested. I think this explains it ????

The reason I’ve posted that was because when they’ve posted the article that said that Germany didn’t give any face masks to Italy the forum was littered with posts by Brexiteers saying how this was the end of the EU. Not one of the posts anything positive about this now. Hence the question, where are they now? 

3 minutes ago, pacovl46 said:

The reason I’ve posted that was because when they’ve posted the article that said that Germany didn’t give any face masks to Italy the forum was littered with posts by Brexiteers saying how this was the end of the EU. Not one of the posts anything positive about this now. Hence the question, where are they now? 

The Facemasks ?

They are in Italy 

BERLIN/MANNHEIM, Germany (Reuters) - German hospitals with spare capacity on Tuesday welcomed their first coronavirus patients from Italy, where an overwhelmed health care system has seen the pandemic kill more people than in any other country. 

 

Will Germans now seek help in Italy?

17 minutes ago, CG1 Blue said:

Germany are not the EU (although some might argue they are!). This is a good gesture from the Germans while they have the capacity. 

 

The German death rate from C19 is still unbelievably low. Some experts suggest this is due to the aggressive testing regime in Germany, meaning that the number of reported infections is higher. Most other countries are not including healthy low risk people with the virus, because they are not being tested. I think this explains it ????

Germany are not the EU (although some might argue they are!). This is a good gesture from the Germans while they have the capacity. 

 

I beg your pardon. Germany IS THE # one Euro country that pays the most for other countries after the UK ran away.

 

If Germany wouldn't exist, there wouldn't be an EU. 

 

What do you mean by while they have the capacity?

 

Do you think that Germany won't survive the Brexit? It's time for a Gexit now. 

 

 

 

  

 

 

5 hours ago, Logosone said:

Far-sighted and correct decision.

German, period.

1 hour ago, Isaanbiker said:

Germany are not the EU (although some might argue they are!). This is a good gesture from the Germans while they have the capacity. 

 

I beg your pardon. Germany IS THE # one Euro country that pays the most for other countries after the UK ran away.

 

If Germany wouldn't exist, there wouldn't be an EU. 

 

What do you mean by while they have the capacity?

 

Do you think that Germany won't survive the Brexit? It's time for a Gexit now. 

 

 

 

  

 

 

What I mean is Germany currently have some capacity, but they won't once the number of seriously ill German patients rises. 

 

My other point was that a decision made by Germany is not a decision from the EU, as was suggested by the person I responded to. 

 

i'm not really sure where you're going with your other comments ????

2 hours ago, pacovl46 said:

The reason I’ve posted that was because when they’ve posted the article that said that Germany didn’t give any face masks to Italy the forum was littered with posts by Brexiteers saying how this was the end of the EU, so where are they know?

Fair one, maybe put it into context next time?

17 hours ago, pacovl46 said:

So where are you EU-naysayers now?

A handful of patients  for show. As the Germans said, they will use the patients as a learning experience to prepare.  Hardly anything spectacular.

Definitely beats the 884 test kits China sent Thailand.

20 hours ago, webfact said:

Germany has 27,000 confirmed coronavirus cases but only 114 deaths

german sceintists are pazzled with germany's low death rate.

i was reading about it, and it is a mystery !!

the virus got to germany same time it got to italy, and look at the difference

in numbers !!

10 hours ago, CG1 Blue said:

What I mean is Germany currently have some capacity, but they won't once the number of seriously ill German patients rises. 

 

My other point was that a decision made by Germany is not a decision from the EU, as was suggested by the person I responded to. 

 

i'm not really sure where you're going with your other comments ????

I’ve never suggested that this was a decision by the EU. Just as much as not giving any face masks to Italy wasn’t a decision by the EU, yet loads of Brexiteers were posting that that marked the beginning of the end of the EU. 

17 hours ago, SCOTT FITZGERSLD said:

german sceintists are pazzled with germany's low death rate.

i was reading about it, and it is a mystery !!

the virus got to germany same time it got to italy, and look at the difference

in numbers !!

The biggest reason for the difference, infectious disease experts say, is Germany’s work in the early days of its outbreak to track, test and contain infection clusters. That means Germany has a truer picture of the size of its outbreak than places that test only the obviously symptomatic, most seriously ill or highest-risk patients.
 

“At the beginning, when we had relatively few cases, when it came to finding and isolating them, we did quite well in Germany,” said Reinhard Busse, head of the department of health care management at the Berlin University of Technology. “That’s the major reason.”

 

Other factors such as age of the infected and the timing of Germany’s outbreak, also play a role in the differing death rates, but testing has been widely key.

 

As of the writing of this post the fatality rate in Germany has been 206. 
 

 

 

5 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

A handful of patients  for show. As the Germans said, they will use the patients as a learning experience to prepare.  Hardly anything spectacular.

I doubt that it was for show! Not giving any masks wasn’t spectacular either. 

Germany has a history of pioneering work in medical research.

 

It is no accident that Trump desperately wanted to buy a German company, Curevac, and move it to the US.

 

The strength of the German medical establishment is a blessing that has already benefitted the whole world and will continue to benefit the world.

 

Do the Germans get any thanks, no, but they're used to that. They will just keep saving lives anyway. Despite the xenophobic hatred of generations of anglo-saxons reared on anti-German propaganda.

Edited March 26, 20206 yr by Logosone

An offensive troll post and the sensible replies have been removed. 

On 3/25/2020 at 12:39 PM, Isaanbiker said:

BERLIN/MANNHEIM, Germany (Reuters) - German hospitals with spare capacity on Tuesday welcomed their first coronavirus patients from Italy, where an overwhelmed health care system has seen the pandemic kill more people than in any other country. 

 

Will Germans now seek help in Italy?

The last place you'd want be (after the USA) is there. The simple answer is 'Nein Danke.

8 hours ago, Logosone said:

the xenophobic hatred of generations of anglo-saxons reared on anti-German propaganda.

Acts of kindness like this show that most Germans have moved on from the past and look to a new future.

 

Unfortunately, through your words it seems you are not one of them.

 

I bet when you fart it plays the Deutschlandlied.

Germans have finally started to help Italians. After they have seen Russian military planes landed bringing medical equipment and experts to help .