Three cases from the district show how difficult it is for citizens and the health authority to deal with the situation.
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen - On Friday two weeks ago no one could have guessed what the happy family celebration would have. "We were eating together, hugging each other, it was as warm as it is in a family with Croatian roots," says Geretsriederin Sabine Kos. Michael, the friend of her niece Sabrina, was missing, however, because he was not feeling well that day - he complained of runny nose and fever.
The following Monday, the young man got scary and had the corona virus tested at his own expense - also because he was invited to a wedding a few days later. Last Wednesday Michael received the result: positive. Sabrina's mother then informed all the guests of the party by phone. Sabine Kos also felt queasy: “My niece was sitting right next to me and my daughter Franziska. And I think Franzi even nibbled on Sabrina's dessert. ”The 53-year-old learned from her sister-in-law a little later that doctors would soon be on their way to Sabrina to test them.
The 22-year-old had meanwhile been imprisoned at the behest of the health office together with her friend Michael, who had Covid-19, in his one and a half-room apartment. If it is also positive, all guests of the celebration would have to be tested. Until then, Kos said, the agency said, "everyone should be careful who they meet with or where they're going." There was no question of voluntary quarantine.
Confusing information from the office
Sabine Kos called the health office herself - and was given little useful information. "I wanted to know what to do." The 18-year-old Franziska also had direct professional contact with older people, "and she was sitting right next to Sabrina during the party". A stressed lady on the other end of the line sealed that everything was not so bad. If Sabrina got infected with Michael on Friday, the guests of the celebration could not have gotten infected with her on Friday. "In the meantime, however, it was said that you could become infected two or three days before the symptoms appeared," says Kos. "I asked the lady - I don't know if she was a doctor - a few more questions, for example whether we had the virus in us and could carry it on, although without symptoms. But she choked me off pretty quickly because, she said, she had a lot of other callers on the line. "
Sabine Kos finally decided not to let her daughter go to work anymore - and met a very understanding boss. “The risk was just too high for me. At least I can say that my daughter hasn't infected anyone, that calms me down. ”
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Friday morning Kos' sister-in-law got a fever. Her daughter Sabrina showed flu-like symptoms: runny nose, body aches, mild fever - but no cough. Both are currently isolated in their own rooms. Now the sister-in-law called the health department. She was worried, wanted to be tested because she also takes care of her lung-sick mother. Information from the authority: test not possible, we no longer have tubes.
On the same day, however, a group of the health department went to Sabrina and Michael's apartment. When Sabine Kos thinks of this ghostly appearance, like a scene from the catastrophe thriller "Outbreak", "it still pulls my hair out". The men “called Michael and Sabrina five minutes earlier and said they should open all the windows and ventilate them.
Then they came in in protective suits with masks and glasses, "stuck this stick in her throat, wished him a speedy recovery and left." How should you still feel good, asks the Geretsriederin: "I sat next to Sabrina, and they come in full gear. That shows how highly contagious the virus is. "
Sabrina's test result is still not available four days later: "To this day, the girl does not know whether it is positive," Kos said on Tuesday evening. On the other hand, she heard from an acquaintance, a craftsman with frequent customer contact, that his family doctor tested him carefully and quickly on Corona at his expense in her practice. "It all contradicts everything," says the 53-year-old and accuses the district authority of a lack of crisis management. “People are left alone. Why does the health department need forever to test? Why do some doctors not test people without symptoms, but others do? ”
Why, Kos asks, hadn't the county authorities just said on Wednesday when Michael was tested that the 20, 30, 40 people who got in touch with him should stay at home until everyone was tested? In the neighboring counties it was "already burning" at this point. They also knew about the dramatic development in Italy. "No wonder," Kos says, "that we are now where we are in this crisis."
A family from Benediktbeuern also feels left alone by the health department these days. A 30-year-old from Benediktbeuern was the weekend with two friends last weekend in Austria.
No getting through the emergency medical service
In the meantime, two people from the group have been shown to have Corona. Up until this diagnosis last Friday, the 30-year-old had had close contact with his brother's family. He has had no symptoms himself and is currently in quarantine. But since last weekend, his sister-in-law (39) and the little daughter (two and a half years) have been showing corona symptoms. The 30-year-old called the citizens' phone in the district office on Saturday. He wanted to be tested immediately. "But there it was said that if I have no symptoms, I should stay at home and if it gets worse, call the medical emergency service," he reports. "But there was no getting through there at the weekend." Only now could the Benediktbeurer be tested by his family doctor. He hopes that the result will be available as soon as possible. "Everything is very stressful."
His sister-in-law (39) also feels helpless. She called the pediatrician first. "He said I should contact the health department." There she was then told that she and the child were not considered to be direct contacts because it had not been proven by the brother-in-law. The 39-year-old was also asked to report to the emergency medical service. When she finally got through there hours later, she was told that only returnees from high-risk areas were examined, as well as people who had contact with demonstrably ill people. "But that's exactly the problem," says the 39-year-old desperately. The family reports of cases from acquaintances in Weilheim, where the health department reacted much faster and even tested suspected cases on a Sunday.
A topper is also desperate because of the sluggish help. The woman, over 60 years old and thus "in the risk group", complained of sore throat, cough and headache on March 4 after returning from her skiing holiday in the Corona hotspot in Ischgl. On Monday, March 9th, she learned that one of the passengers in her group had tested positive, and another one later. Until Wednesday, the woman tried to call hotline 116 117 and the health department to find out what to do - to no avail. Only when her husband went to the office did they react. Finally, a doctor came in the afternoon and tested her.
“Since Friday I have been calling the health department every day without receiving any information as to whether I am positive or negative,” says the woman. The laboratories are overworked, they tell her. On Monday, after many attempts, she finally reached a doctor in office. She learned from her, "I could behave normally again from Wednesday, since it may be that the findings may only come in three weeks," said the topper. The doctor knew no answer to her objection as to why her acquaintances who had been tested after her would have had her result within 48 hours.
Responsibilities are shifted back and forth
Later "I was called back by the health department and asked what could be done to help me". She described her case to the lady. She recommended that she contact the doctor who took the smear directly. "I did, and I was told to call the health department, they would be responsible for it." The Tölzerin is at a loss: "I don't know if I'm an exception, but if it is the same with others, it is not surprising if Corona spreads like this. ”In any case, she has prescribed home quarantine since March 9,“ since I don't want to take the risk of infecting anyone. But it would be comforting to know whether I am positive or negative. ”Until Wednesday, she had no answer.
This is what the health authority Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen says
Our newspaper confronted the health department with the allegations. The cases would show, says head of office Dr. Stephan Gebrande, "How difficult it is to make the procedure understandable to the citizens because it is very complex". A distinction must be made between confirmed cases, justified suspected cases and contact persons of category 1 (close contact), category 2 (lower risk of infection) and category 3 (only medical personnel). The detailed criteria can be found on the website of the Robert Koch Institute. www.rki.de. All of these groups are subject to different care and treatment regimes. "In principle, it is the case that people with signs of illness are always to be seen and treated by the resident doctor," says the head of the Tölzer Health Office. Based on the symptoms and whether the patient was in a risk area or had contact with a confirmed case of Covid-19, the patient should clarify whether an examination for the novel coronavirus is necessary. "It is not the job of the health authority to ascertain justified suspicion, but that of the resident colleagues," said Gebrande. His authority would only take action if the test was positive. "If the person tested positive is reported to the health department, contact follow-ups are carried out immediately." This determines how intensively other people have had contact with the sick person, and then they are classified into one of three categories. The contacts in category 1 must be in quarantine, those in category 2. "Category 1 persons are monitored for their health until the 14th day after the last contact with the confirmed case," said Gebrande. Although these contact persons are those without symptoms, they still cut back in Bavaria to test for SARS-CoV-2. The head of office admits that "due to a shortage of resources, we were not able to perform the swabs on all Category 1 contacts". During the research, however, he and his staff experienced “very often” that the citizens would confuse the different constellations and terms. On request, it turned out, for example, that an alleged, well-founded suspicion was never in contact with another sick person or was not in a risk area. In reality, they had only met with people who were contact persons for proven cases and therefore did not have to be monitored at all. ”
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