Corona outbreak at the Starnberg Clinic: Eight employees and eight patients tested positive

The next blow shortly before Christmas: There was a corona outbreak at the Starnberg Clinic.

How it came about and how it will continue.

Starnberg - In the end, even all the precautionary measures could not prevent it.

Several patients and employees of an internal medicine ward at the Starnberg Clinic are infected with the corona virus.

"That hits us and we are very sorry," said chief physician Professor Florian Krötz on Wednesday in an interview with Starnberger Merkur.

It feels like having lost “to a superhuman enemy”, he said, speaking of a “catastrophe”.

Krötz: “We know that people can be harmed as a result.” Nevertheless, he has hope of being able to contain what is happening.

The facts:

Last Saturday, a previously negative patient tested positive for the virus.

As a result, all other patients in the ward, some of whom had already been discharged, and the staff were tested.

"So far, a total of six other patients have been identified who may have been infected in the clinic," reported clinic spokesman Stefan Berger on Wednesday.

“Two more patients who have already been discharged have now also tested positive.” So a total of eight patients were infected.

In addition, a total of eight clinic employees tested positive in connection with the corona outbreak - five nurses and one student from the affected ward.

There are also two employees who had contact with patients on the children's ward.

But: "So far, no transmissions to patients or employees have been detected in the children's ward," said Berger.

However, some test results are still pending.

Chief physician Krötz therefore hopes that the infection process can be limited to the internal medicine ward.

The consequences:

The affected station is in quarantine.

There were twelve patients there yesterday, who, according to Krötz, were all negative.

“The patients will continue to be tested several times and, in the event of a positive result, will be transferred to the infection ward,” explained Berger.

The two patients who have already been discharged and tested positive are in quarantine at home.

The same applies to the eight employees.

Repeated tests would also be carried out on the children's ward in the next few days, said Berger.

A total of around 80 employees were tested in connection with the current development.

The corona outbreak also has an impact on the palliative care ward, which is part of the internal medicine ward affected.

There is now - as in other areas of the clinic - a ban on visits.

Until recently, a few relatives or pastors were still allowed to visit the seriously ill patients due to an exception.

One of these patients died shortly after the Covid 19 finding, as Berger explained.

The man in his late 60s from the Starnberg district “died of his advanced tumor disease”.

The search:

How the virus got to the ward is unclear.

Chief physician Krötz can imagine that the chain of infection can be traced back to an employee who went through the infection process “based on the symptoms and the laboratory results one to two weeks ago”, he said.

This employee was on duty for the last time on December 14, and the patient tested positive on December 19.

However, the trigger will probably never be exactly identified.

Krötz does not blame anyone.

"We have been trying to prevent something like this from happening since March, we do headstands," he said.

Among other things, FFP2 mask requirements apply to employees with patient contact.

In addition, according to Berger, serial tests of employees using rapid antigen tests have been carried out since November 9th - "initially every 14 days from sensitive areas such as intensive care units, emergency rooms, infection wards," explained Berger.

At the beginning of December, "weekly testing" was switched to.

Other figures:

As of Wednesday, a total of 27 Covid patients were treated in the normal ward and one in the intensive care unit at the Starnberg Clinic.

The intensive care patient could not be assigned to the current outbreak, said Berger.

In addition, 15 other patients were quarantined within the clinic.

In addition, 160 non-Covid patients were treated in the clinic.

According to Krötz, the operation of the clinic is not at risk.

However, the nursing staff has been working on the attack "for some time".

"That is admirable."

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