Doctor Çelik, we talk regularly about your work as a senior physician in the isolation ward for Covid 19 patients at the Darmstadt Clinic.

How is the situation?

Julia Anton

Editor in the Society department at FAZ.NET

  • Follow I follow

We have currently overcome the phase with the maximum number of hospitalized Covid patients of the fourth wave.

In the past week we have seen that the number of patients we admit is falling somewhat.

This process goes faster in the normal ward, i.e. in patients who are less severely affected and, in this wave, younger than in the intensive care unit.

We still have a high number of patients there, and all beds are occupied.

There, too, the patients are younger than in previous waves, but there is the paradoxical effect that this is precisely why they have to be treated there for longer.

What kind of patients are currently coming to you?

The patients with severe courses can currently be roughly divided into two cohorts according to clinical aspects: on the one hand, unvaccinated patients with severe courses, whose average age is 53 years. And the much smaller group of patients with severe breakthroughs in the vaccination - so far there has not been a boosted patient - the average age is 73 years. That is an average of 20 years difference and that is of course very noticeable. Time and again, a young, unvaccinated patient with severe symptoms shares the room with an older patient with a symptomatic breakthrough in the vaccination. We usually see the milder courses in the vaccination breakthroughs. Furthermore, we very rarely see the full picture of Covid pneumonia in a completely vaccinated person, that was less than ten percent of our cases.This practical experience is not always reflected in death statistics, as younger patients fortunately have more reserves and can withstand severe courses longer. In the public discussion of vaccination breakthroughs, discussions are very superficial and without clinical details, only on the basis of rough statistics. A closer look at the clinic is important, also in view of the upcoming Omikron wave.

The peak of the fourth wave has been forecast for Christmas. Do you still expect a short-term increase in the numbers in the coming days?

That will be very different from region to region.

From a Hessian perspective it can be said: Here the incidence was recently significantly higher than in the peak phases of the previous waves.

But the positive effects of the vaccination are clearly noticeable.

Despite a record incidence in Hesse, the number of hospitalizations is around half as high as at the height of the second wave.

Unfortunately, this effect does not apply to intensive care patients, where we are once again at the highest values.

I cannot make a good estimate of the coming days, because even if the incidence falls, many people will continue to be infected every day.

In other parts of Germany, however, the situation can be very different.

We are not lulled into a false sense of security by the falling incidences.

We know what's coming soon.