Medical Care

The German government has purchased a new Covid-19 antibody-based Corona drug. German Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) has stated that "Starting next week, the monoclonal antibodies will be used in Germany as the first country in the EU. Initially in university clinics," and added that "The federal government has purchased 200,000 doses for 400 million euros,"

Dr. Mathias Mengel, Medical Director of the Klinikum Oberlausitzer Bergland gGmbH, explained in a video forum on Tuesday evening that triage has already had to be carried out several times at the hospital in Zittau in Saxony, Germany.

According to Mengel, there have not been enough ventilation beds available and he stated that they "been in the situation several times in the past few days of having to decide who gets oxygen and who doesn't".

The intensive care units of the hospitals in Stockholm have reached a capacity of 99 percent and are almost at a point where no new patients can be admitted.

Stockholm region's health and medical care director Björn Eriksson has called for help as "the consequences could be terrible" of nothing would change and if people "go for after-work drinks, do Christmas shopping or meet people outside your household".

All 876 beds certified by the Swiss Society for Intensive Medicine (SGI) for adults and thus recognized as intensive care beds in Switzerland are now occupied in the course of Covid-19 treatment - with this statement, the Society appealed on Tuesday to the public's sense of responsibility

Patients should consider whether they would like to have life-prolonging measures in the event of a serious illness as "this will help their own relatives as well as the teams of intensive care units in the decision-making process, so that treatment can take place in the best possible way and according to the individual patient's will,".

Switzerland has also updated its triage guidelines in order to assist medical professionals with the decision which patients to treat.

The chief of Switzerland's Covid-19 taskforce, Martin Ackermann, has told reports that "We estimate that the capacity limit in intensive care in hospitals will be reached between November 5-18 if nothing changes from the current situation". Previously a new record of 6,634 Covid-19 cases had been recorded.

A woman in Germany died during a ransomware attack on the Düsseldorf University Hospital, in what may be the first death directly linked to a cyberattack on a hospital. The hospital couldn’t accept emergency patients because of the attack, and the woman was sent to a health care facility around 20 miles away.

It could be the first death directly linked to a cybersecurity attack.