Vaccination and contact tracing: Bavaria's health authorities are in the works

Created: 02/10/2022, 22:03

By: Thomas Eldersch

Many health authorities are working at the limit and can hardly keep up with making contact.

© Daniel Bockwoldt/dpa/symbol image

Not only in the hospitals, but also in the health authorities, people are groaning under the strain of the corona pandemic.

However, many agencies deal with it differently.

Munich/Regensburg/Landshut – Since the beginning of the corona pandemic * just over two years ago, there has been a state of emergency in the health authorities in Bavaria.

They have to look after people infected with corona and their contact persons and track chains of infection.

Now (mid-March) the enforcement of facility-related compulsory vaccination is coming up.

The work doesn't stop.

(By the way: Our Bayern newsletter informs you about all the important stories from Bavaria. Register here.)

Corona in Bavaria: Omikron pushes the health authorities to their limits

Early in the pandemic and especially during the big corona waves, there was a lot to do for the employees in the health authorities throughout Bavaria.

Employees from other departments were quickly pulled to provide support.

Later, members of the Bundeswehr were added.

In the peak phase of the corona waves, however, even that was no longer enough.

Infection numbers were often reported too late to the Robert Koch Institute* or infection chains could no longer be traced.

Now, with the institution-related vaccination requirement, a new task is facing the authorities.

But they are still in the middle of coping with the omicron wave.

And how exactly they should implement or control the vaccination requirement is also not yet clear.

Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) emphasized again today (February 10) that Bavaria stands behind the law.

However, there will be problems when it comes to execution.

"This is not how this law will work, it will end in chaos."

Health authorities in Bavaria: switching from telephone to e-mail

Even before the problem with the institution-related vaccination requirement can be tackled, the employees of the health authorities are struggling with infection rates at unprecedented levels.

This pushes many of them to the limit again.

The BR spoke randomly with offices in Lower Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate *.

It turned out that the handling of contact tracing, the issuance of quarantine certificates and contact management in general is handled quite differently from district to district.

The classic way of contacting is by telephone.

This is still the case in the Straubing-Bogen district.

Here, however, only vulnerable groups in which more than 50 percent of the people are infected - for example school classes - are called.

That would free up capacities, a spokesman for the district office told BR.

Ten employees would be available for inquiries.

However, waiting times cannot be ruled out.

In Landshut, due to the high number of infections, e-mail contact is now used for the quarantine notification.

People in Amberg-Sulzbach and Tirschenreuth have also gotten away from the telephone.

Questions will only be answered by email here.

In Cham, staff had to be increased to cope with the flood of text messages and e-mails.

In Regen, they probably want to switch from telephone to e-mail soon, because since Tuesday it has no longer been possible to contact all affected persons by telephone on the same day, according to a district office spokesman for BR.

In Regensburg, infected people are still informed by letter

Light and shadow are close together in Lower Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate.

In Rottal-Inn and Freyung-Grafenau, e-mails or text messages are used that are sent directly from the test center where the person who tested positive was tested.

There, the infected people then provide information about themselves and their health.

This data is recorded automatically and only then is contact established.

In the Upper Palatinate metropolis of Regensburg*, on the other hand, people are still on the move in the same way.

Those affected will be informed by letter.

That could take up to a week, a city spokesman told BR.

The reason is the high workload of the laboratories when evaluating the PCR tests.

In Deggendorf, it is currently still possible to contact the people concerned on the same day.

However, if they cannot be reached, the police can be at the door and impose the quarantine personally.

But regardless of whether contact is made by letter, e-mail, SMS, telephone or police, the behavior in the event of a positive test is always the same.

You have to go into isolation immediately and wait for further instructions from the health department.