In the fight against the corona pandemic and the fourth wave of infections, the district is putting everything on one card: vaccination.
As District Administrator Christoph Göbel announced in a virtual press conference, vaccination capacities will be massively expanded - not only in the Haar vaccination center.
"Vaccination is the most important thing", emphasized Göbel and renewed his demand for a general vaccination requirement.
District - After his dramatic appeal a week ago that the vaccine allocated to the Munich district would only last for a few days, the situation has eased significantly, according to Göbel. He was assured that a sufficient number of vaccine doses are currently available. This was thanks to a joint effort by all those responsible, he said. Göbel assumes, however, that there could be logistical bottlenecks in the foreseeable future. Because he is assuming that not only the willingness to vaccinate people who have not been vaccinated will continue to pick up speed and that many people who have already been vaccinated twice will come to the booster, but that the vaccination of those under twelve will also be released relatively soon. "We have to prepare for this," he clarified.
In the meantime, almost 521,400 vaccinations have been carried out in the district, around 20,000 in the past 14 days alone, the district administrator announced proudly.
Of the around 130 vaccinations that are now administered daily, the proportion of booster vaccinations is between 60 and 70 percent.
If the vaccination capacity had recently been reduced as the instructions from above would have provided, Göbel said, only 5000 vaccinations could have been carried out in the past 14 days.
We prepared ourselves as well as we could, ”said Göbel.
Amplifiers for the vaccination buses
But even if you are in a good position compared to other districts - also with regard to the hospitalization incidence of 1.7 (Bavaria-wide 8.7) - according to Göbel, that is no reason to take a deep breath. On Thursday they received approval to further increase vaccination capacities. Now, according to Göbel, more hair is to be vaccinated in the vaccination center. The vaccination buses will also receive support from Monday in the form of amplifier buses. They are also in talks with municipalities so that mobile vaccination teams can vaccinate in municipal buildings, and doctors are also setting up additional vaccination stations. For example, on Thursday in Unterschleißheim, in addition to the vaccination bus offer, there was a short-term vaccination offer organized by the city, the BRK and a doctor. It is also considered to revive other vaccination centers - like the one in Oberhaching.
According to Göbel, the fact that many citizens still have to queue up these days to be vaccinated can also be related to the fact that the territorial restriction on vaccinations has now fallen.
"Many people waiting may not even come from the district," he speculates.
Contact tracking is only possible with some cutbacks
So while people in the district concentrate entirely on vaccinating, in the meantime they have to cut back significantly on contact tracking due to the large number of infected people. "We got along quite well up to the 200 incidence," stated the head of the health department, Gerhard Schmid. At an incidence of 400, full follow-up is no longer possible. “We have to prioritize,” says Schmid. At the moment, the focus is on looking after the infected and identifying and informing the close contact persons - above all from the circle of vulnerable groups. According to Göbel, only six district citizens had to be hospitalized in the past seven days. There is currently no sign of a shortage of beds in the rescue association.
Göbel doubts whether all the measures planned so far will be sufficient to break the fourth wave in the short term: “I can hardly imagine that with these incidences and a high incidence of shadows, the situation will relax by Christmas.” He therefore expects further cuts.
Reality caught up with his forecast hours later: Prime Minister Markus Söder announced regional lockdowns, a general Christmas market ban in the Free State and the closure of bars and discos on Friday afternoon.