Local groups in the Freiburg district association organize test centers and training courses for laypeople.
The Freiburg district association of the German Red Cross continues to participate in the test strategy to combat the corona pandemic in the Freiburg region. This has now been announced by the Freiburg district association, whose catchment area includes the urban district and around two thirds of the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district, excluding the Müllheim / Bad Krozingen area, as well as the region around St. Blasien and Bonndorf in the Waldshut district. Several local associations are involved in test offers in their respective communities or carry them out entirely under their direction. In addition, several local associations offer shopping assistance and supply services for people in need, including people who are in quarantine.
Some local associations have also arranged vaccination appointments for seniors from their communities in the last few weeks. In some cases, the demand went far beyond that. “We also received inquiries from Stuttgart and even from Hamburg,” says Michael Schrödel from the DRK district. Since almost all over 80-year-olds are now vaccinated or have a vaccination appointment, this offer was recently reduced or locally discontinued. The homepages of the municipalities still contain references to local mediation help in the search for vaccination appointments, intended for the respective residents.
With the significant expansion of rapid tests, the number of cases in which a rapid antigen test erroneously initially shows a positive result, i.e. a possible infection, also increases. However, since every positive rapid test is necessarily followed by a PCR laboratory test, these cases of blind alarms can be detected. The worst that this has as a result is that you have to go into quarantine for a day or two as a precaution before the negative PCR test results are available, explains Marc Rösch from the DRK local association March. “It is important that almost everyone who is actually infected and is being tested is also recognized as positive in the rapid tests,” explains Rösch. In March there was a rush of around 240 people for a quick test on the Saturday before Easter, which is why more workers were deployed and tests were carried out both in the morning and in the afternoon. Almost 50 rapid tests were positive, around one in five. This proportion was significantly higher than on other test days: on the Wednesday before Easter only six of over 110 rapid tests were positive, on the Tuesday after Easter eight of 72. In fact, many of the many positive rapid tests on the Saturday after were refuted by negative PCR test results. Rösch cannot imagine any errors in the handling of the tests, only trained personnel with experience, including those from intensive care, were employed. The batch of tests could possibly have defects, the remains were put aside as a precaution, according to Rösch.
In addition to its own test campaigns, the Red Cross offers e-learning courses and training courses so that people can carry out antigen tests on colleagues or in schools, for example. According to the district association, there were already around 70 training courses with around 400 participants before the Easter break.
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