Even on public holidays, the inquiries in the Frankfurt health department do not stop. Almost 300 employees, many of them part-time, ensure that questions about Corona can be answered seven days a week. They contact infected people and research possible places of infection. Two dozen so-called containment scouts from the Robert Koch Institute are helping out in Frankfurt. But also students, officials from other departments, trainees from different parts of the administration and more than 100 employees of the health department deal with the many inquiries. The tracking of contacts will become less important, the higher the number of infections caused by Omikron, suggests Peter Tinnemann, head of the health department. When the numbers increase tenfold, "tracking is no longer the most important factor".Then the telephone accessibility of the office should be in the foreground.
So far, only 500 cases of the new virus variant have been confirmed by sequencing in Hessen. However, only about five to ten percent of laboratory samples are tested for Omikron, as Tinnemann reports. The proportion of the more contagious variant in the infections reported in Frankfurt could therefore already be higher. However, if there are specific indications of Omikron in a facility, the office will initiate a follow-up test. But shouldn't all confirmed infections be retested on Omikron? “As long as we have a few cases of the highly contagious variant, we can still track down their contacts and send them to quarantine. At the beginning of a new variant, it is important to retest those with a risk if possible. If Omikron has established itself in the population, then we no longer need additional sequencing ",says the chief officer.
The increase in reported new infections appears to be developing rapidly. "We are closely monitoring the increase in reported new infections in other countries and how the disease is progressing," he adds. Then the question arises whether all infected people still have to be quarantined for two weeks as before. This is currently also being debated at the responsible authorities in Berlin.
A rapid increase in infections, as can be observed in neighboring countries, threatens the work of the critical infrastructure when infected people and their contacts have to isolate themselves. Therefore, some countries have shortened the quarantine period for infected people without symptoms in order to prevent an acute shortage of staff. In Germany, such a decision by the Robert Koch Institute, which Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) has also brought into play for Hesse, is still pending.
However, the health department already has the option of approving a so-called work quarantine, as Tinnemann emphasizes.
However, it only affects the contact persons of infected people who have not infected themselves.
A nursing home for the elderly, in which many employees would have to be quarantined because of an infection, could, for example, ask the health department for such an exemption.
Under conditions such as daily tests and hygiene measures, the segregation could then be lifted.
However, only if the employees concerned also agree, says Tinnemann.
He relies on good preparation: "I have great confidence in the critical infrastructure."