Three students of the vocational college had tested positive for Sars-CoV-2. The district then sent around 400 students and teachers from 15 classes into domestic quarantine. The district health department classified all students and teachers who had been regularly in the wing where the affected students' classrooms were located as Category 1 contact persons. According to Meilicke, the reason for this decision was that the district first had to assume that there was an unexplained transmission of the virus. Because: in one class, two pupils who were not sitting together had tested positive. In addition, there was the third case in another class. "We had to assume that there was a transmission and we thought that the hygiene concept of the school had not worked", said Meilicke.

For this reason, the district for the first time wrote a letter to the bus operator, in whose bus one of the sick pupils was on board, and to the schools whose pupils also use the buses. 52 leaflets were then distributed by three inspectors with the request that passengers of line 508 who were travelling at a certain time should report to the public health department because of a possible infection. "At the moment, we want to achieve maximum safety, that's why we went this way", said the head of the district health office. In the meantime it was known that the possible contact times in the bus were only short.

All in all, he said, it was very fortunate that the three affected students had been discovered at the vocational college. They were contact persons of other outbreaks. "It could have been a huge outbreak", Meilicke added. He criticised that the health authorities were left alone by the state and that there was no higher-ranking institution to help with decisions.

On Tuesday, the Left Rhein-Sieg faction of the district council expressed criticism of the information policy of the district health office. A first letter to the parents of the students affected by the quarantine contained false information on home segregation. "We are sorry that this has happened. We corrected it immediately," said District Administrator Sebastian Schuster. The other parents were not contacted at all. Head of the school office Hans Clasen: "This is not intended so far. But we will discuss it with the school management and the school supervisors and check if complete information is the better way."

Corona cases also employ the district health department at other schools and daycare centers. According to Meilicke, as of Sunday, there were eleven more outbreaks with two or more cases, including two completed ones. The county does not disclose further information for data protection reasons.

On Tuesday, for example, a case became known at a school attendant at the primary school of the Free Christian Schools Bonn/Rhein-Sieg in Alfter, three children are in quarantine. "We have to get used to the fact that we have a lot of open construction sites from now on", Meilicke said. "This will spread like wildfire.“

A total of 1724 people in the Rhein-Sieg district have tested positive for the corona virus so far. That is ten more than on Monday. There are 72 current cases. 53 people have died, 1599 are believed to be recovering.

Original text: Hannah Schmitt

Translation: Mareike Graepel