From the Corona team back to the NATO mission: the Bundeswehr leaves the Miesbach district office

Created: 03/18/2022, 07:00

By: Sebastian Grauvogl

Thanks before leaving: District Administrator Olaf von Löwis with the members of the information technology battalion 293 Murnau, who supported the district with the corona data collection.

In addition to Major Michael Pietsch (front right), the head of the district liaison command, Lieutenant Colonel Reserve Thomas Weiss (front left), was also responsible for coordination.

© Stefan Schweihofer

For four months, Bundeswehr soldiers supported the district office in recording the corona cases.

Now they are returning to the NATO mission.

To the governor's regret.

County

– Seven full-time jobs in IT are reluctant to give up.

District administrator Olaf von Löwis made no secret of his regret about the withdrawal of the Bundeswehr soldiers from the Corona team of the district office.

“We wouldn't have managed all this without you,” said Löwis, thanking the members of the 293 Murnau Information Technology Battalion.

They worked "quietly and professionally" for four months.

It hurts all the more to have to do without this support with immediate effect, especially since the pandemic is not over yet - on the contrary.

"People are becoming more carefree - and that worries me," said a noticeably thoughtful district administrator.

The fact that the authorities now have to withdraw additional staff from the contact tracing team in order to be able to organize the accommodation of the refugees from Ukraine (we reported) does not make it any easier.

Ultimately, you have to take care of two crisis situations at the same time, the district administrator sighed.

Soldiers have fond memories of Miesbach

The soldiers will remember Miesbach fondly, assured Major Michael Pietsch as head of the 1st company of the IT battalion.

You felt needed and happy to help.

Connections were also made on an interpersonal level, said Pietsch.

Ultimately, however, everyone involved was aware that the work in the district's Corona team was only possible temporarily.

In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, the Bundeswehr will only act upon request at the state or district level.

"We're like the fire brigade that extinguishes when there's a fire," said Pietsch.

Now he and his people are needed again in their original area: as IT experts to strengthen the NATO flank in Lithuania.

A task that has become even more important as a result of the Ukraine war.

"We're going towards that now," said Pietsch.

With the good feeling of having made a lasting difference in Miesbach.

With their expertise, the soldiers would have helped to improve the data collection system for corona cases and thus shorten processing times.

Also interesting: District Office sets up crisis team in Ukraine

Each soldier managed ten cases a day, reports Pietsch.

What at first glance looks like a rather meager quota is actually a pretty tight workload, explained the major.

So you have to manually transfer each laboratory report to a multi-page data mask in the Sormas software.

A job that will not become less even after the gradual reduction in contact tracing, because: Every new infection must be registered.

Pietsch emphasized that this was the only way for those affected to receive the certificate required for their employer.

Corona: District administrator hopes for personal responsibility of the citizens

The governor is hoping for the public's help.

By taking responsibility for preventing infection despite the relaxed rules.

Because even if the currently predominant omicron variant of the corona virus causes a milder course of the disease: The staff shortages due to quarantine and illness would place a heavy burden on the hospital and medical practices - and thus also indirectly jeopardize the care of patients who do not suffer from corona.

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The parting gift that Löwis presented to the Bundeswehr battalion also showed that the time of crises is not over.

Among other things, it contained some products that have gained a certain notoriety during the pandemic: toilet paper and pasta.

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