Survived wave of illness?
Expert sees the peak of the infection wave passed
Created: 2022-12-28 05:52
By: Stefanie Fischhaber
According to doctors, the wave of illnesses in Germany is decreasing again.
© Christoph Soeder/ dpa
The wave of infections in Germany is still ongoing.
Intensive care physicians see the peak passed.
But on New Year's Eve there could be bottlenecks again.
Postponed surgeries, full children's hospitals and a lack of medicines: the wave of illnesses in Germany is still keeping doctors and nurses in suspense.
However, the worst is probably over.
Intensive care physician Christian Karagiannidis expects the number of infections to fall again soon.
Infection wave in Germany: expert sees peak exceeded
According to Karagiannidis, the wave of respiratory diseases in Germany has reached its peak.
"We currently know that the very strong wave of infections has just peaked and that the number of infections will hopefully decrease in the coming days," said the President of the German Society for Internal Intensive Care Medicine to the
editorial network Germany
.
The greatest burden for the clinics is currently the flu wave.
"Compared to other years, there are also significantly more influenza cases overall now, which creates an additional burden," explained Karagiannidis.
This could be counteracted next year by more people being vaccinated against the flu.
Bottlenecks in the clinics?
Intensive care physician warns of firecrackers on New Year's Eve
There are currently signs of a slight decline in the wave of the respiratory syncytial virus, which mainly affects children, and in other infectious diseases.
Nevertheless, Karagiannidis warned that there could be bottlenecks in clinics on New Year's Eve and New Year - but regionally and not nationwide.
In view of the tense situation in the hospitals, the intensive care doctor appealed to the population to behave sensibly.
"We already have an extremely heavy load on the emergency rooms and the situation traditionally comes to a head on New Year's Eve," Karagiannidis told RND.
He therefore called for the clinics to be relieved and the fireworks to be avoided or at least reduced to a minimum.
Doctor sees corona pandemic over
The emergency doctor, who is also a member of the German government’s Corona Expert Council, was also optimistic about the corona pandemic.
"I expect that the pandemic will now increasingly come to an end," said Karagiannidis and answered in the affirmative when asked whether the pandemic would be over after the winter.
Certainly there will still be one or the other small wave.
However, the immunity situation of the population is solid and there are significantly fewer Covid patients in the intensive care units.
(sf with dpa)
