Corona and Oktoberfest cold: The double wave
Created: 04/10/2022 17:03
By: Stefanie Zipfer
The number of positive rapid corona tests has increased again in the Dachau district.
© Christian Ohde via IMAGO
The number of corona infections continues to rise, and at the same time a wave of colds is sweeping through the district.
The family doctors can hardly keep up with their work, and the cases of Covid patients are also increasing rapidly in the clinic.
Nevertheless, those responsible remain relaxed: This development was "expected".
Dachau – On Monday, September 19, two days after the Oktoberfest started, the corona situation in the district was relaxed.
259.2 was the value of the seven-day incidence.
Since then, however, the district has experienced an increase that has not been seen for a long time.
A week later, on September 26th, the Robert Koch Institute gave the incidence value for Dachau as 401.
Now, another week later, he's scratching the 900 mark.
898.7 was the seven-day incidence on Friday, September 30.
It can hardly be assumed that it fell over the long weekend.
Due to the public holiday, the RKI is somewhat behind schedule with updating its figures.
According to Sina Török, spokeswoman for the district office, there were 313 other cases recorded by noon yesterday - and "around 300 samples received are still being processed".
In the clinic, too, the trend is only pointing in one direction: steeply upwards.
As of yesterday afternoon, according to clinic spokeswoman Anne Schaller, there were 38 corona patients at the Helios Amper Clinic in Dachau, 30 of whom are in the normal ward and eight in the intensive care center.
For comparison: A week ago there were 17 patients with Covid-19 who were being cared for in the Dachau clinic, three of them in intensive care.
The figures, it was emphasized, were “at a low level”.
Does the district now have to be afraid of being overwhelmed by a corona and cold wave?
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Christian Günzel, medical officer and member of the "Pandemic Coordination Group in the Dachau district, which was set up two and a half years ago", says very clearly: "No!" According to the doctor, both waves are - even at height - "expectable" and therefore "not surprising".
On the one hand, Günzel states that the current wave of colds has been around for decades.
In and around Munich it has always been called "Wiesn-Schnupfen".
And the corona wave, on the other hand, has recently picked up speed every autumn - in 2020, in 2021 and now also this year.
Günzel therefore thinks it is wrong to blame both waves on the Oktoberfest alone.
Of course, according to Günzel, “there were a lot of people together and there were a lot of infections”.
But the basic trend of the number of corona and colds, which has been increasing for around three weeks, “has been there all over Germany”.
The small "folk festival wave", as Günzel calls it, that took place in Dachau in August confirms his assessment: "It quickly subsided and was not a medical problem."
Nevertheless, the doctor warns against taking corona or flu infections lightly.
It is important to test in the event of symptoms.
“Anyone who is positive should stay at home.
But if you are negative, you should not go to work either.
You only infect your colleagues and in the end the whole department is sick.”
As far as a Covid 19 vaccination is concerned, Günzel follows the Stiko recommendation.
At the same time, he advises the flu vaccination.
Although it is still "medical speculation" and has not yet been proven by studies, doctors assume that due to the corona-related lockdowns of recent years and the flu seasons that have thus basically failed, the coming flu wave will have an even greater impact on the immune system of the citizens should have an effect.
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The general practitioners are correspondingly “active”.
In addition to treating cold and corona patients, it is important to prepare for the seasonal vaccinations.
Unlike the official vaccination centers, which only vaccinate against corona, the general practitioners also offer a combination: flu and corona.
The physician Günzel strongly advises those who have not been vaccinated, who may even belong to a risk group, to be vaccinated.
Anyone who ends up in the hospital because of Corona “is still really seriously ill today”.
Vaccination demand is increasing significantly
The district currently has around 8,000 doses of Biontech and Moderna vaccines adapted to the Omicron variant BA.4/5 in stock.
"The cans have a shelf life of ten weeks, so we are very well positioned and can reorder at any time," says the health department.
Both in the vaccination centers and among family doctors, the demand for a corona vaccination is “currently increasing again significantly”.
The Stiko recommends the fourth booster vaccination for people aged 60 and over;
nevertheless, according to the health department, citizens under 60 who want a vaccination would also get the fourth prick “after a brief consultation with a doctor”.
People who are registered for a booster vaccination receive "essentially the adapted vaccines".
For a basic immunization, according to the health department,
