More than 1400 corona infections among Bavarian police officers

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Munich (dpa / lby) - Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, more than 1,400 police officers in Bavaria have been infected with the virus.

This was announced by the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior at the request of the German Press Agency in Munich.

1264 of the 1436 police officers are considered cured.

As of Wednesday (January 13), 172 officials were still acutely infected.

As a result, 572 police officers were infected with SARS-CoV-2 within just over a month and a half.

On November 23, 2020, the total number of infected police officers in Bavaria was still 864, according to a response from the state government to a request from the SPD parliamentary group.

According to the answer, most of the infected police officers had the riot police by the end of November (219), followed by the Munich police headquarters (104).

At the police headquarters in Upper Bavaria South 93 cases occurred, in Upper Bavaria North 86, in Middle Franconia 83, in Upper Palatinate 54, in Upper Franconia 51 and in Lower Bavaria 50.

Fewer than 50 cases were found in the remaining police headquarters: at the police headquarters in Swabia South / West 39, at the police headquarters in Lower Franconia 37 and in Swabia North 27. At the State Criminal Police Office, 21 officials tested positive, while at the Police Administration Office until the end of November 2020 no official was verifiably infected was.

Participation in training courses or meetings were named as contagious moments.

Other police officers said they were infected during arrests or first aid - or because they were spat on while on duty.

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The SPD interior expert Stefan Schuster accuses the government of Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) of putting the officials sometimes unnecessarily at risk: "Our police are doing a great job in this pandemic, but they are also being burned by the Söder government", he said.

“She has to monitor sometimes nonsensical rules such as the 15-kilometer leash and also help out in the health authorities.

Our police officers are always close to the citizens and therefore exposed to an increased risk of infection. "

According to the state government's response to the request, 32 police officers submitted an application for recognition as an occupational accident after their corona infection by the end of November - all applications were rejected.

According to a court spokesman on Thursday, four police officers have filed a complaint against the negative decision at the Munich Administrative Court.

These are police officers from the riot police who indicate that they were infected at the beginning of the pandemic - during a sports course or an exam.

The Ministry of Finance justifies the rejection, according to information from the government response to the SPD request, for example with the fact that the place and time of infection are not exactly traceable or that the infection was not "caused by the performance of the service beyond the general risk of infection in a special way".

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The SPD accuses the state government of being stingy.

You put a "cold-hearted bureaucracy and stinginess on the day", criticized Schuster.

«Nobody can prove where they got infected one hundred percent.

That is impossible and completely unrealistic.

The state government doesn't even know where infections take place. "

Police officers on the front line are particularly at risk of infection.

"They therefore rightly expect that their commitment will also be appreciated if they fall ill in connection with their service."

Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) had campaigned at the Ministry of Finance in the autumn to benevolently examine the applications of the sick police officers.

"We have expressly asked the responsible ministry of finance to re-examine the attitude towards the recognition of infections with SARS-CoV-2 as occupational accidents," said a spokesman for the interior ministry.

"The Ministry of Finance then assured us that each individual case would be carefully examined."

However, the Ministry of Finance pointed out that, regardless of the other requirements, “a risk situation that goes beyond the general risk of infection is required” in order to be able to recognize an infection as an accident at work.

«The interior minister has spread in the media that he would speak out to the finance minister for the sick officials.

Now it turns out that it was nothing but hot air, ”criticized SPD interior expert Schuster.