While Chancellor Merkel is considering opening steps in Germany, the situation in the Czech Republic is worsening.
Infection numbers explode, medical professionals are forced to take action.
Prague - The coronavirus pandemic had calmed down in many countries over January, and the situation in Germany also seemed to relax for a while.
However, while the Robert Koch Institute recorded a sharp increase in infections on Wednesday, the situation in the neighboring country of the Czech Republic seems to be worsening.
Doctors there are now even forced to take a measure.
Corona in the Czech Republic: The situation is worsening - doctors are taking desperate measures
The hospitals in the Czech Republic reported a record number of Covid 19 patients on Wednesday.
A total of 8162 people are treated as inpatients.
This is the highest value ever recorded in the country during the corona pandemic.
The local Ministry of Health confirmed on Wednesday.
These included more than 1,660 particularly severe cases that
require
artificial
ventilation.
In the administrative region of Pardubice in Eastern Bohemia, an emergency plan was activated because the hospital capacity was completely exhausted.
To get the corona pandemic and the overflowing hospitals under control, doctors are now taking unexpected measures.
In view of the desperate situation, largely untested drugs are now to be used on a trial basis.
10,000 packs of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin arrived at the University Hospital in Brno.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis had advocated this personally: "We say that we cannot wait for clinical studies, let's try that."
Corona in the Czech Republic: Neighboring country has a skyrocketing incidence of 780
But the country is also trying to contain the spread of the virus in other ways.
By order of the government, large companies are now also to counteract this with corona mass tests.
Over the next two weeks, more than two million workers and employees are to be tested at least once.
The authorities reported 16,642 new corona cases within 24 hours on Wednesday.
According to calculations, more than 780 people per 100,000
inhabitants
were infected within 7 days
.
There have been nearly 1.3 million confirmed infections and 20,941 deaths since the pandemic began.
List of rubric lists: © Armando Franca / dpa