Lindner for personal responsibility
Clinics report twice as many corona patients as in the previous year
07/24/2022, 03:50 am
The summer wave is putting pressure on hospitals in Germany. There are currently twice as many Covid sufferers in the wards as there were last summer. However, the main concern of the clinics is not the increasing number of patients.
There are currently twice as many corona patients in German hospitals as there were last summer. Although the proportion of intensive care patients among the corona patients is significantly lower, the absolute number of patients is “twice as high as at the same time last year,” said the CEO of the German Hospital Society (DKG), Gerald Gaß, the newspapers of the Funke media group. “The figures make it clear that autumn can once more be an extreme test for the clinics.”
Total Covid intensive care cases Invasively ventilated Covid intensive care cases
“Nevertheless, the increasing number of patients who have tested positive for corona are not the main concern in the hospitals at the moment,” Gass continued. The main problems were the high level of sick leave among employees and absences due to corona infections and quarantine. “In numerous hospitals, operations that can be planned have therefore had to be postponed and entire areas have to be temporarily signed off.”
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner meanwhile rejected calls for further corona protection measures. “In the future, there must no longer be blanket, blanket restrictions on freedom for everyone,” he told the Funke newspapers. “We need targeted measures that guarantee as much social life as possible and leave people as much personal responsibility as possible.” Talks are currently underway between the Ministry of Health and Justice regarding the corona measures that should be possible in the future in the fight once morest the pandemic.
Lindner defended the restrictions on the free corona tests: “We continue to use a lot of tax money to finance the citizen tests. However, a personal contribution is absolutely necessary so that the tax money is used sensibly.” With the free tests “many seem to have earned a golden nose”.
