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Corona General warns: PCR tests are becoming scarce - who can now hope for prioritization

2022-01-16T20:05:59.669Z


Corona General warns: PCR tests are becoming scarce - who can now hope for prioritization Created: 01/16/2022, 21:02 The head of the crisis team, Carsten Breuer (left), believes that the laboratories could soon reach their test capacities when it comes to PCR tests. © Hannibal Hanschke/dpa Due to the high corona numbers, the laboratories that take care of PCR tests are reaching their limits. Is


Corona General warns: PCR tests are becoming scarce - who can now hope for prioritization

Created: 01/16/2022, 21:02

The head of the crisis team, Carsten Breuer (left), believes that the laboratories could soon reach their test capacities when it comes to PCR tests.

© Hannibal Hanschke/dpa

Due to the high corona numbers, the laboratories that take care of PCR tests are reaching their limits.

Is prioritization coming soon, and who can hope for it?

Munich - Omikron is on the rise - and the laboratories are reaching their limits. In view of the rapidly spreading omicron wave, it is primarily the laboratories that are reaching their limits. Janosch Dahmen, health policy spokesman for the Greens, therefore spoke in the

ARD

lunchtime magazine on Friday in favor of prioritizing the PCR corona tests, but believes that more far-reaching measures are necessary. "As in other areas, if there is a bottleneck, we have to prioritize our work and make sure that employees in the critical infrastructure in particular, but also patients with severe symptoms, continue to receive the important tests in the PCR area."

Many laboratories are already at the limit.

Testing is not enough to break Omikron, says Dahmen: "We have to do everything we already know in the third year of the pandemic that helps, namely keep our distance and reduce contacts - both on our own responsibility and, if necessary, in tightened rules. This includes a possible expansion of 2G-plus measures and the FFP2 mask requirement. 

"We can see very clearly that the weekly capacity of 2.4 million PCR tests that we have in Germany is now needed everywhere under full load," said Dahmen to

RBB

Inforadio.

Care must be taken to give preference to the seriously ill and the staff of the critical infrastructure - even if this leads to delays elsewhere, for example in the free test.

Major General Breuer: Soon there will not be enough test capacities

Due to the rapidly increasing number of infections, according to the head of the federal government's Corona crisis team, Major General Carsten Breuer, there will probably soon no longer be enough test capacities available for the entire population.

On Thursday, there were also calls from the Union for prioritization, especially for the use of the PCR tests, which are important for detection.

"As with all scarce resources, we will certainly have to pool capacities where necessary," said Breuer of the

Süddeutsche Zeitung

.

This also applies to tests.

“As soon as things get tight somewhere, I have to prioritize.

Employees in critical infrastructure have priority," said the Bundeswehr general.

However, the goal is to maintain the previous test regime for as long as possible, he emphasized.

"We need the most accurate data possible to see how the wave is affecting us."

Breuer warned against underestimating the danger posed by the omicron variant of the corona virus.

Green parliamentary group leader wants to give preference to sensitive professions and critical infrastructure

The general demanded a "bulwark against Omicron".

Germany should “not be in a position where we have to shut down the critical infrastructure so much that public life is restricted”.

Breuer also campaigned again for more vaccinations to counter the omicron wave.

He made it clear that there was neither a vaccine nor the infrastructure missing.

Greens parliamentary group leader Britta Haßelmann also expressed the fear that soon not everyone would be able to do a PCR test in case of suspicion because the capacities of the laboratories were exhausted.

"If that's the case, which I hope isn't, we'll have to prioritize it," she told broadcasters

RTL

and

ntv

.

People in sensitive jobs and critical infrastructure should have priority.

In addition, a PCR test is necessary for infected people at the end of their isolation.

CDU calls for recommendations for action from the Ministry of Health

"The Federal Ministry of Health must present a recommendation for action to prioritize PCR tests as soon as possible," said the CDU health expert Tino Sorge of the AFP news agency. As long as there is a risk of overload, "the existing capacities must be used primarily according to urgency and medical needs". This could lead to “a vacationer having to wait longer so that someone in need of care receives their result quickly” or employees in the critical infrastructure can be cared for.

"The high number of infections is accompanied by many tests," warned the chairman of the accredited laboratories in medicine, Michael Müller, of bottlenecks.

He also urged prioritization.

The possibility of being tested soon after being released from quarantine will inevitably lead to a "rush" to the laboratories as far as the laboratories are concerned

.

(cg with dpa)

From February you can protect yourself against Corona in Germany with a new vaccine.

Four others are currently under review and may follow soon.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-01-16

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