Critical infrastructure: Emergency plans and high vaccination rates protect against collapse

Created: 01/27/2022, 05:30

By: Max Wochinger

You can also rely on the fire brigades in the current time, assures District Fire Councilor Harald Stoiber.

© Thomas Gaulke

The number of corona infections is increasing rapidly.

More and more people have to be quarantined.

Is the critical infrastructure maintained?

Not quite.

County

– The omicron wave has swept through the county.

The health department records around 1,000 new infections a day.

More than 6000 citizens in the district are currently infected.

bus operator

The bus operator Josef Ettenhuber feels this clearly: Many of his drivers have dropped out.

The company from Glonn (Ebersberg district) serves many lines in the Munich district.

200 drivers work for the large company.

Ten of them are currently in quarantine, eight are also sick, says managing director Josef Ettenhuber.

Another 15 bus drivers would have vacation.

The result: there are not enough drivers.

"All employees from the administration have to drive now," says Ettenhuber.

This is the only way to serve peak operations.

"Because of the shortage of skilled workers, we're short on staff anyway," says the company boss.

However, employees are not only absent because of a coronavirus infection.

Quarantine cases also contribute to the precarious situation: Unvaccinated contact persons usually have to be quarantined for ten days.

This also applies to people with a positive corona test.

450 contacts are currently in quarantine.

Eight bus drivers from Josef Ettenhuber's company are currently ill.

© Archive: Stefan Rossmann

MVV and MVG

The Munich Transport and Tariff Association (MVV) registers these staff shortages at several bus companies.

The reason for this is “cases of illness or quarantine,” reports the MVV.

A replacement timetable applies to some lines.

In order to stabilize operations, the timetables would be thinned out in the evening hours.

Overall, however, the Munich Transport Company (MVG) speaks of “normal” sick leave.

"Due to the Omicron variant, however, we expect the numbers to increase in the coming days and weeks," said a spokesman for MVG.

There are contingency plans for major staff shortages.

These provide for a cycle thinned out by individual journeys.

From a sick leave of at least 20 percent in the driving service, it becomes critical, then emergency plans are likely, according to the MVG spokesman.

“Currently, we are about half the sick leave rate here.”

A railway spokesman said that the Munich S-Bahn was running “quietly and smoothly”.

There are currently no restrictions at all.

court House

The critical infrastructure is also secured in other areas of public life: A spokeswoman said that operations in the district office are currently running smoothly.

So far in January, five employees have been in quarantine or isolation.

A total of around 1,500 employees work in the district administration.

fire Department

In an emergency, citizens can also rely on the fire brigades in the district.

"There are no failures," says District Fire Councilor Harald Stoiber.

The district has one of the highest fire brigade densities in Europe, and according to Stoiber, the level of vaccination among the team is very high.

There are alternating shifts and safe concepts in an emergency, Stoiber confirms.

"We are practiced in this subject."

police

There are currently many failures at the Munich police headquarters: 70 emergency services are currently infected with the virus, and another 70 are in quarantine.

"These numbers are easy for us to cope with," said a police spokesman.

A total of over 6,000 employees work for the Munich police, including the district police officers.

town halls

Far fewer people work for the Garching town hall, 80 employees take care of the administration here.

In the university town, a particularly large number of people have contracted the virus.

The infection process has no effect on the administration.

"So far there have been no major failures," says a spokesman for the town hall administration.

contingency plan

In any case, bus operator Josef Ettenhuber and his team were already thinking about further operations before Christmas.

They have drawn up an emergency plan with extended timing.

If the number of infections continues to rise and bus drivers fail, he has to use the emergency plan, says the company boss.