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COVID-GERMAN-PREPARED-2nd WAVE
German hospitals well prepared for second COVID-19 wave: hospital federation
BERLIN, Aug. 5, 2020 (BSS/XINHUA) — Hospitals in Germany were well prepared for a potential second wave of COVID-19 and the resulting increase of patients in need of treatment, the German Hospital Federation (DKG) announced on Wednesday.
“We still have increased vacancies for intensive care and isolation rooms,” Georg Baum, managing director of DKG, told the German newspaper Rheinische Post on Wednesday. “Also, the stocking up with protective equipment is better today than at the beginning of the year.”
In addition, German hospitals had gained a lot of experience in recent months, which would put them in a better position during a potential second COVID-19 wave, said Baum.
Of the more than 32,000 intensive care beds currently listed in the online registry, more than 20,000 were in use, according to the online registry by the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI).
Currently, 230 patients infected with COVID-19 are undergoing intensive care treatment, 129 are being artificially ventilated as of Tuesday, according to the DIVI online registry.
“Although the rate of new infections has increased, it is still at a low level compared to many other countries,” Klaus Reinhardt, president of the German Medical Association told Rheinische Post.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), new infections with COVID-19 in Germany increased by 741 within one day to 212,022 on Wednesday while the number of coronavirus-related deaths increased by 12 to 9,168.
On Tuesday, Susanne Johna, the first chairperson of the Marburger Bund, a German trade union of doctors, told the newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine that “we are already in a second, flat wave of increases.” The second wave was not comparable with the high daily case figures recorded in March and April.
“We all long for normality. We simply are in a situation that is not normal,” stressed Johna, adding that as long as there were no drugs to treat COVID-19, the spread of the coronavirus had to be contained.
BSS/XINHUA/IJ/1938 hrs