Coronavirus in Bonn Infected Cologne resident works in Bonn-Endenich company
Bonn · A woman from Cologne who tested positively for corona virus works in a company in the Endenich district of Bonn. The first case of corona virus in Bonn was an employee in a school. 185 students and teachers of the school were tested for the novel virus; the city reported that all of the tests were negative.
A woman from Cologne, who has just tested positive for coronavirus, works in a company in the Endenich district of Bonn. This was confirmed to the GA on Sunday evening by city spokeswoman Monika Hörig. The city has not yet reported on any further details. The municipal health department is dealing with the case and is initiating appropriate measures. Authorities are looking for 14 people with whom she had contact. According to GA information, the company is said to be located in an office.
Infected Bonn resident makes himself available for research
Meanwhile, in the Clemens August School in Poppelsdorf there was a sigh of relief: After an employee there tested positive for the corona virus, all pupils and teachers were examined to see whether they were infected. As the city of Bonn confirmed at a press conference on Sunday evening, all tests were negative. About 30 other "contact persons of the first category" had not yet been found or had no test results yet.
At the press conference on Sunday morning, city director Wolfgang Fuchs praised the public health approach of going to the homes of the children to test them there. "We can be happy that we are able to carry out the testing in this way. Our thanks go to the fire department and the volunteer rescue workers." So far 223 persons have been contacted.
"We are currently directing all measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus." But it was not considered an epidemic at the moment. Wolfgang Holzgreve, Medical Director of the University Hospitals in Bonn, assured that it is not necessary to test additional household members in the families of Poppelsdorf school children as long as no symptoms are shown.
The Bonn virologist Hendrik Streeck was also present at the press conference of the city health department on Sunday morning. He reported that he had visited the 22-year-old student and employee of the Clemens August School at his home. He was the first patient detected with the novel corona virus in Bonn. ”He is currently doing quite well. What I am very happy about is that he has agreed to make himself available for further research into the virus.”
Streeck reminded the audience that there are currently around 85,000 people worldwide who are infected with the coronavirus. With the exception of a few cases in Italy, they were able to trace back to the person of contact. He was not worried about "passengers in buses and unclear outbreaks". As reported, the student infected with the coronavirus had travelled by bus to the university hospital on Thursday and Wednesday, in order to finally be tested there on Friday. This had led to many inquiries as to whether the passengers on the respective buses should not have been contacted as well.
Inge Heyer, head of the city's health department, where, according to city director Fuchs, up to 100 calls per hour currently reach the hotline, said that the health department will cancel all postponable examinations such as the school entrance examination until later.
Clemens August School will remain closed for 14 days
The Clemens August School will remain closed for 14 days. The school employee affected by the virus is also university student. The 185 students and personnel must remain at home. Other schools in Bonn are not affected.
Leo Stahl (9) has already completed the procedure, as his mother Tina told the GA on Sunday morning. "We are now waiting for the results." Tina Stahl, who is a member of the school staff at the Poppelsdorf school, praised the full-time and voluntary staff of the fire brigade and the aid organizations. "It all went very well. Other parents have reported that as well." Nobody panicked, the children were rather curious and excited. "The teams also explained the whole thing very well to the children. We feel well informed," said Stahl.
The tests were carried out by employees of the city' s emergency medical services and volunteers from Bonn's aid organizations on site in the homes of the affected people, said Carsten Schneider, deputy chief of the Bonn fire department. They were wearing appropriate protective clothing. According to the German Red Cross, a total of 90 rescue workers from various Bonn relief organizations and more than 20 vehicles were deployed. The testing was performed by 24 teams of two persons each. They tested people who had direct contact with the infected patient.
Meanwhile, the suspicion of corona virus has not been confirmed for another Bonn resident. This was announced by Marc Hoffmann, spokesman for the city of Bonn, on Saturday evening. The man had contact with a guest at a private carnival party in Bonn, and that guest later tested positive in Lüdenscheid. Since Saturday noon, there is also another suspected case. The result of a test was still pending on Sunday morning. In both suspected cases there was no connection to the 22-year-old who tested positive for the virus.
In total, there are now about 70 confirmed cases in North Rhine-Westphalia where people have been infected with the corona virus SARS-CoV-2. On Saturday, two new cases each were reported in Cologne and Duisburg, three from the Aachen area and, in addition to the case in Bonn, one each in Lüdenscheid and Mönchengladbach.
(Orig. text: Andreas Baumann, Marcel Wolber, Andreas Dyck, Michael Wrobel; Translation: ck)
