Update 1:46 p.m.
Twenty German citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan arrived in Berlin today. At the Red Cross Hospital in the German capital’s Köpenick district, they will be in quarantine for at least two weeks.
At 3:20 a.m. local time this morning, a British charter jet took off from Wuhan Airport. Its destination is a military base near Oxford. The aircraft carried some 200 British nationals and 20 Germans along with their families. Individuals from other European states were on bord as well.
The Foreign Ministry in Berlin thanked the British authorities on Twitter, saying the flight had been “an act of European solidarity”, nine days after the United Kingdom left the E.U..
Berlin ‘Prepared Well’
The Germans and their families had a connecting flight. At around noon, they were flown towards Berlin, where they arrived at approximately 1:00 p.m.. From the military section of Berlin’s Tegel Airport, they were supposed to be driven to their accommodation for the next two weeks. The patients will not have any ocean view rooms at the Red Cross Hospital in Berlin’s Köpenick district, but the ‘Müggelsee’ lake is close by.
Dilek Kalayci, Berlin’s Senator of Health, said the passengers from Wuhan would first be tested for the Coronavirus. The results would be available on Monday. Berlin was prepared well, Kalayci stated. At this stage, there are fourteen confirmed Coronavirus cases in Germany. The authorities are hoping that none of the new evacuees will turn out to be infected.
Twelve of the confirmed German Coronavirus cases are connected to a company employees of which took part in a workshop with a Chinese colleague who did not know she was infected until she was back in Shanghai. The other two are Germans evacuated from Wuhan a week ago.
Evacuees from Austria and Luxemburg
Some of the twenty evacuees and their families had wanted to be flown to Germany on the first evacuation flight. But they did not make it to Wuhan Airport on time. Others did not contact the German consulate on time. Wuhan is the city most affected by the Coronavirus. Thousands there are infected, hundreds have died.
At an Air Force base in Germersheim, more than 100 evacuees are in quarantine. Several patients from the first evacuation group were treated at a hospital in Frankfurt. Most of these patients are not infected, but have other health problems. A majority of the Bavarian Coronavirus cases are being monitored at the Schwabing Hospital in Munich. The first Bavarian patients might be released from quarantine soon.
Note: ‘Our Chronology: Germany and the Coronavirus’ documents how the Coronavirus crisis developed in Germany until today.
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