BERLIN - German hospitals with spare
capacity on Tuesday welcomed their first coronavirus patients
from Italy, where an overwhelmed health care system has
witnessed the outbreak kill more people than in any other
country.
Ahead of an expected larger wave of home-grown infections
that German authorities are preparing for, a first group of six
Italian patients arrived at Leipzig airport in the eastern state
of Saxony on Tuesday morning.
The western state of North Rhine-Westphalia also announced
plans to take 10 Italian patients over coming days. "We need
solidarity across borders in Europe," said its premier Armin
Laschet. "We want to preserve the European spirit."
Saxony's premier Michael Kretschmer said the government in
Italy, where confirmed cases of the virus have topped 64,000 and
deaths risen above 6,000, had asked for help. Germany was the
first country to take in Italian patients.
Leipzig's university hospital took two of the transported
patients, a spokesman said, both critically ill 57-year-old men
moved from intensive care in Bergamo, at the epicentre of
Italy's outbreak and where overburdened wards are having to
choose who to give life-saving ventilator treatment to.
A benefit to Germany from the transfers is that its
hospitals will gain valuable further experience in treating
coronavirus patients before the country's tally of serious cases
soars.
Germany has 27,000 confirmed coronavirus cases but only 114
deaths, and is using the time before the expected surge to
strengthen its intensive care capacity.
The government is offering hospitals huge state subsidies to
help accelerate plans to double that capacity, currently at
around 28,000 beds.
Germany has also been more rigorous than some other EU
countries in testing for coronavirus, one possible factor behind
the country's exceptionally low mortality rate.
In Italy, where an ageing population is a key factor in
apparently unusually high mortality statistics, the head of the
agency collating data on the epidemic told La Repubblica
newspaper he believed as many as 640,000 people could have been
infected.
German hospitals also took in coronavirus patients from
France on Tuesday.
"We have still three, five, seven days because we are before
the (bigger) wave," Hartmut Bueckle, a spokesman for the
university clinic in Freiburg, close to the countries' border,
told Welt TV. "We want to use this time to offer our French
neighbours the possibilities we still have for now."