Unions warn of massive casualties of teachers due to infections and quarantines in schools and colleges
Germany has exceeded this Thursday for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic the 300,000 daily coronavirus infections and an incidence rate of more than 1,750 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in a week. While contagions subside in other European countries, in Germany they have been registering new daily maximum levels for more than a week. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), responsible for coordinating the fight against the disease in this country, specified today that in the last 24 hours there have been 318,387 new covid-19 infections, 23,456 more than a week ago, when 294,931 were counted. infections. For its part, the incidence skyrocketed to 1,752.0 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants in one week, compared to 1,734.2 cases the previous day. In the last 24 hours, 300 more people died of the disease in Germany. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have already been 127,822 deaths in this country from the virus.
Although the omicron variant causes those infected to present milder symptoms than those of previous waves of the disease, the growing number of infections is a serious problem for the health system. Not so much because of the admission of patients to hospitals, but because a good part of the medical staff is on leave due to illness and there is a shortage of nurses and doctors in health centers and clinics. The same thing happens in the educational system. The trade unions have warned of the consequences of the growing number of infected teachers. “The loss of educational personnel due to the coronavirus affects schools and colleges in a worrying way,” said Anja Bensinger-Stolze, member of the executive of the Federal Union of Education and Science.
“The number of casualties due to illness will continue to increase in the coming weeks as measures to combat the pandemic are eased or removed,” warned the trade unionist, who stressed that politicians act hastily. “We appeal to all political leaders to maintain the mandatory use of masks and the concepts of hygiene and regular tests so that the situation does not get out of control. Educators are already working at the limit of their possibilities, ”said Bensinger-Stolze in statements to the Network of German Newsrooms (RND). In turn, Udo Beckmann, president of the Association of Educators, warned that “the dynamics of the omicron variant causes dramatic infections in schools with an increase in teacher casualties due to infections and quarantines.”
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