In the case of each, is tested in Germany to the Coronavirus positive, begins a race against time. In the health offices of the Virus detectives go on the search for those who could have infected the Infected face.
Each laboratory message can trigger the next alarm and his Team to the limits. "An old people’s home, a refugee accommodation. Best on Friday evening just before the weekend." Lutz Ehlkes (37) sits in the tenth floor of an unadorned Bürobaus at the düsseldorf main station. He is one of the Coronavirus-detectives who have been fighting for weeks nationwide in each health Board against the pandemic.
The view over Düsseldorf’s fine. Only epidemiologist Ehlkes currently has little time to look out the window. "Since March, I’m practically continuously in the Einsatz", he says. With nearly 50 colleagues, he is in Düsseldorf, the Coronavirus on the heels. "What to put in Overtime to demolish and commitment to the day, I would not have thought previously possible."
"A kiss – the war's"
If an Infected person is called, the according to a certain scheme: "We will inform the Tested that you have attached. Then we ask, how are you, if you feel the symptoms, and ensure that you walk around on the street. Later, in a second call, we try to identify their contact persons to contact the then and also quarantined to stellen", Ehlkes says.
In between, the Infected get about an hour of time, to sort and to think, with whom they had contact. Contact means: "15 minutes Face – to-Face unprotected." It also has a shorter body enough contact, especially if body fluids flow: "A kiss – the war's. "
Four to six days after infection from breaking the disease in the rule. Two days before the outbreak of will put itself to the Carrier. From this point to the test result, time passes. This period, the Virus detectives.
"First, you were magnificent, you could not even the ambulance rufen"
Stand-alone and Vorerkrankte be called in the days that followed, several times, because the Coronavirus is tricky: "We have had cases that felt great and the next day it was so bad that they could not call the ambulance."
"First it was: I was in Heinsberg on this carnival party. Then it was: I was in Ischgl – the were ten cases in a day." One of the first Infected had 100 contact persons. "The us is overrun pretty. All had to be informed and instructed, that they are now in quarantine."
With very practical problems: "Who is still in the phone book? Who does not want to be reached, one not reached." Internet portals such as LinkedIn have led in some case to the goal. In a hurry, the Team was increased. The so-called Containment Scouts came, often the medical students. Containment is containment.
The battle seemed hopeless, but then attacked the measures
Eventually, the battle is hopeless: " rail;In mid-March, we had exponential growth." But then the action handles and the Numbers fell. "It’s super funktioniert" has;, Ehlkes says. The disease protection measures, the number of contact persons has decreased rapidly.
The "Super-GAU", this is currently an infected residents of a nursing home or an infected Patient on the cancer ward. "As we make smears from all employees in order to find the one who brought the Virus in, otherwise all is."
In case of an outbreak in a refugee home, it helped, a vacant Hotel to rent and to pick up all the from the facility, the Infected and contact people separately to accommodate: "In the Hotel no one has more."
Blue-and-yellow jacket with four stars and the imprint: a Public Health Authority
If Ehlkes needs to get out on the disease front, he has a blue-and-yellow jacket with four stars on it and the imprint: a Public Health Authority. "This makes impression, especially for people who do not speak English."
Already for a long time, it’s no longer about the infection chain retrospectively to understand. "We were not able to relatively early." In the meantime, it’s just a matter of, stem the pandemic.
Many people have understanding of but there are also problem groups
Most of them are grateful for the call, have an understanding of the measures and the Emergence of symptoms, self-quarantined on their return, but there are problem groups: "People who are afraid of losing their job, the result of a false sense of duty to work sick gehen", Ehlkes says. In addition, drug addicts or the mentally Ill, of which not all of the pads have held.
The biggest problem group but the silent Carriers without symptoms, the aware of their own infection nothing, and of which the health Department is nothing experiences are. They make up about half of the Infected, or even more, as well.
As is the case with almost every epidemic of socially vulnerable are particularly at risk: "Close living conditions, shared rooms are potential powder kegs." The first case in Düsseldorf, lived with his family in a large house: "The has been pulled back in a Granny flat, and not even the members of his family infected."
