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Variant B.1.1.7 of the coronavirus has now been detected in 24 people at two Vivantes clinics in Berlin.

22 cases are known at the Humboldt Clinic.

In addition, two other people are affected at the Spandauer Vivantes Clinic, said the managing director of the Vivantes Humboldt Clinic Jürgen Kirschbaum on Monday.

Further findings are therefore still pending.

The admission stop has been in effect since Saturday night.

The responsible medical officer of Reinickendorf, Patrick Larscheid, justified the admission freeze at the Berlin clinic with the increasingly confusing situation.

According to Larscheid, at least two people outside of a Berlin hospital have now become infected.

In one case a family member of a discharged patient is affected, in another case a person who has had contact with a discharged patient but does not belong to his household.

He also expects that the variant will play a role in outstanding test results.

Larscheid nevertheless warned against dramatizing the situation.

The events are still limited.

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It became increasingly clear that a few other cases in which the virus variant (B.1.1.7) was discovered are related to the hospital outbreak, said Larscheid at Radioeins.

“It started to fray a bit.” You could no longer limit the outbreak to one area.

"It became totally confusing."

There have been very strong indications that what is happening in the Humboldt Clinic may have already spread more widely.

It was no longer clear whether it was an outbreak or parallel outbreaks.

It quickly became clear to those involved that there was no other chance than stopping admission, "if we still want to save something," explained Larscheid.

Nevertheless, everyone is aware that it is a very painful step.

How exactly the virus mutation got into the clinic is still unclear - several hypotheses are being pursued, the medical officer described.

Record stop since Saturday

In the course of intensified investigations with regard to the feared spread of corona variants, also in this country, evidence of B.1.1.7 became known in the Vivantes Clinic in the middle of last week.

The number of those affected grew to 20 by Sunday.

According to Vivantes, there are 14 patients and six employees in a ward for internal medicine and cardiology.

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It is not the first evidence of the variant in Berlin - it is striking, however, that no connections to trips to Great Britain could be reconstructed.

Since the admission freeze on Saturday, emergencies have been moved to other hospitals.

According to information from the weekend, around 400 people are being treated at the clinic.

The 1700 employees are under so-called commuting quarantine.

You are only allowed to travel between your home and the clinic.

According to the medical officer, the closure affects a clinic with five percent of the beds in Berlin.

There are "five to six" clinics nearby that can take care of the care.