Health Minister Garg: Compulsory vaccination as a last resort
Photo: Carsten Rehder / dpa
In a nursing home in Norderstedt (Schleswig-Holstein), unvaccinated staff apparently triggered a corona outbreak.
"According to previous knowledge, it can be assumed that an unvaccinated employee carried the virus into the facility," said a spokeswoman for the Kiel Ministry of Health.
The woman is said to have gone to work despite the relevant symptoms.
The final result of the investigations has not yet been determined.
A spokeswoman for the Bad Segeberg district administration was more cautious.
The cause of the outbreak was "an assumption, but no definitive explanation."
Because of data protection, "in the course of the ongoing proceedings, no further details are given".
Minister Garg "extremely" angry
Of a total of 76 residents of the facility, 60 had tested positive for Corona.
Only three of the infected were not vaccinated.
Most of the people affected had no to mild symptoms.
Two residents would be treated in the hospital, but not in the intensive care unit.
Of a total of 70 employees, 18 had tested positive, at least eight were not vaccinated.
An employee came to the hospital.
Health Minister Heiner Garg (FDP) emphasized that the outbreak shows "that the corona vaccination is working."
It reassures him that the residents can be protected from a severe course of the disease with a high vaccination rate.
At the same time he said that it annoys him "extremely" that unvaccinated staff are still working in care facilities, hospitals and hospices.
"If it is not possible to achieve a high vaccination rate, as a last resort you have to think about compulsory vaccination in these areas," says Garg.
In Norderstedt, “it must now be carefully checked whether the hygiene concepts have been adhered to and why an employee may have been deployed even though she was symptomatic”.
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