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German health institute warns pandemic could overstretch system: paper


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Posted

German health institute warns pandemic could overstretch system: paper

 

2020-03-29T075354Z_1_LYNXMPEG2S04U_RTROPTP_4_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-GERMANY.JPG

A general view of the almost empty street Kaiserdamm, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Berlin, Germany, March 29, 2020. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

 

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's health system could face strains similar to those in Italy if the coronavirus outbreak in the country worsens, the head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the federal agency responsible for disease control, told a newspaper.

 

Lothar Wieler's comments came as RKI data on Sunday showed the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany had risen to 52,547 and 389 people had died of the disease there.

 

"We cannot rule out that we will have more patients than ventilators in this country ... Of course, we must expect that the capacities will not be sufficient," Wieler told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

 

Italy's Civil Protection Agency said earlier this week that the biggest difficulty facing its health service was a shortage of ventilators and masks -- a problem that has dogged hospitals since the start of the outbreak.

 

Compared to other countries hit by the pandemic, Germany has a low mortality rate among coronavirus patients.

 

"This is primarily because we are testing so many people," Wieler told the paper, adding that the large number of tests means that Germany has many cases in its statistics of younger people suffering only mild symptoms.

 

Initial cases of the disease were mainly among people who contracted it outside Germany -- for example on skiing holidays, suggesting those affected were fitter and more active.

 

But the death toll could spike if the virus starts to spread in hospitals and retirement homes, Wieler said.

 

"We are still at the beginning of the wave, and I can only urge everyone to take the pandemic very seriously," Wieler said, adding that it will not be possible to assess the impact of the adopted measures until Easter at the earliest.

 

China, where the coronavirus started, says it has largely contained domestic transmission but is cracking down on travel to the country to avoid imported cases fanning a second wave of infections.

 

"The disease is a pandemic, it comes in waves ... Germany, too, will probably be affected by a second wave of corona," Wieler said, adding that once new infections come down, the shutdown could be eased.

 

"Unfortunately we do not yet know exactly where the threshold for (being able to relax some measures) lies."

 

More than 662,700 people have been infected by the coronavirus across the world and 30,751 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

 

(Reporting by Arno Schuetze, Editing by Catherine Evans)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-30
Posted
6 hours ago, webfact said:

Germany's health system could face strains similar to those in Italy if the coronavirus outbreak in the country worsens

Oh,the irony of Germany going cap in hand to the broke Italians

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Posted (edited)

"Germany aims to double number of hospital, intensive care beds"

the number of intensive care beds equipped with respirators would also roughly double to about 50,000 from 28,000 currently.

 

"In recent months, some intensive care beds have had to be put out of action because of a lack of staff," said Reinhard Busse, a specialist in health economics at the Technical University of Berlin.

Germany currently has some 17,000 unfilled vacancies in nursing care."

http://www.rfi.fr/en/wires/20200330-germany-bets-s-korean-model-virus-fightback

Edited by Opl
Posted

We cannot rule out that we will have more patients than ventilators in this country 

By the way what about Thailand on the subject of ventilators number?

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Posted
1 hour ago, Isaan sailor said:

A big thanks to China, for unleashing this pandemic on the world.  And special mention to the WHO for dutifully aiding in the delayed reaction...

...yes Mr. China whom passes himself of as a World Super Power can't even get it right with basic food processing allowing this virus to grow, then study it, then find it has got out of control...whom holds them responsible..it would make an interesting class action for compensation...RIP all those who have succumbed to this terrible thing which is only in its infancy.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Schadenfreude

Yeah, I was going to use that word, but I wasn't sure anyone would understand it. There is no real accurate translation in English for it, other than "the joy someone experiences at the expense of other people's misery".

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Posted
1 hour ago, tandor said:

...yes Mr. China whom passes himself of as a World Super Power can't even get it right with basic food processing allowing this virus to grow, then study it, then find it has got out of control...whom holds them responsible..it would make an interesting class action for compensation...RIP all those who have succumbed to this terrible thing which is only in its infancy.

So, a compansation for the "Spanish"flue, which originated from Haskell County, Kansas -USA. But.. the soldiers had to go to Europe, with that spreading the flue over the entire world, with somewhere between 20-100 MILLION casualties.

Posted

The Germans put their money in bringing down their state deficit, the Italians and French ( think of the Yellow Vests Movement since Nov 2018 agaisnt the increase of pension age from 62 till 64. In the Germanic countries, this was already since the start 65, and now increeasing towards 67 ) in continuation of much earlier retirements. In one country they built intensive care units see https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00134-012-2627-8, in others... they thought it was not necessary. The Netherlands.. ordered their Philips IC ventillators 2 weeks ago, when everyone knew, disaster wsas coming.

see also https://www.researchgate.net/publication/13795410_Organization_of_intensive_care_units_in_Europe_lessons_from_the_EPIC_study.

Look to the unemployment rates and the rigid labour protection laws, and you will see WHY.

"You have to repair your roof when it is dry" an old wisdom says. Others scream for help when the rainwater poors in.

 

figure1

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Posted
3 hours ago, Isaan sailor said:

A big thanks to China, for unleashing this pandemic on the world.  And special mention to the WHO for dutifully aiding in the delayed reaction...

When the leaders of other countries in the world would have used their brains instead of their mouth, they would have started to organise their health care defence in Mid-January a closed down traffic a lot till even closed all with China. Enough movies and TV series to have learned from. In Italy they thought this virus was a kind of joke, so the football match Bergamo-Valencia Wednesday 18 Feb. went on, and.. a LOT of tourists returning without any inspection from Northern Italy and Austria ( all covered up, see JAWS) .

The marvellous nation of the glorious USA, with their great and unlimited whisdom president did a superb job by thinking of the magnificent economy first, and not the low-life Chinese flue, with result…,

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