Germany (AP) — As hospitals across Europe brace themselves for a surge in coronavirus cases over the holiday season because of the new omicron variant Westerstede Clinical Center is cautiously hopeful it can weather the storm The region of northwestern Germany it mainly serves has among the lowest case numbers nationally “I think we’re on a stable level here,” said the head of the hospital's intensive care unit when The Associated Press was recently granted rare access inside the facility The 43-year-old predicted his ICU might need to treat up to five COVID-19 patients during the period from Christmas to New Year — a number that staff can confidently handle In part that's because it enjoys benefits many other hospitals don't have It is operated in cooperation between regional authorities and the German military helping ensure it has state-of-the art equipment spare beds and additional staff who work there while they are on standby for possible troop deployments The military's vast resources — and its desire to keep medics at the cutting edge of their profession — mean this little-known facility was among the first in Germany to treat people with COVID-19 In the spring of 2020 the German air force flew in patients from Italy where hospitals were struggling to cope with a sudden influx of seriously sick people when Germany's eastern state of Saxony had more ICU patients than it could handle Lehr and his staff can’t perform miracles when it comes to COVID-19 Statistics suggest that one of the three severely ill patients who were being treated in the ICU on Friday won’t recover The odds are worse for unvaccinated patients While the hospital sees cases in people who have and haven't had the shot those without the vaccination tend to be far worse off those who need to be hospitalized either had their last shot a long time ago suffer from underlying conditions or received a vaccine other than those made by BioNTech-Pfizer or Moderna Lehr has no doubt that vaccination is effective given the (infection) numbers we currently have in Germany the occupancy of ICU beds would be significantly higher than it already is," he said Despite recently seeing all-time records for the number of newly confirmed cases — topping 70,000 on a single day — the rate of hospitalization in Germany is lower than at the end of last year when only a fraction of the population had been vaccinated Those patients that end up in Westerstede's intensive care unit are cared for by people like Stefan a senior nurse on the ward who asked not to publish his full name for privacy reasons and as it is standard protocol in the German military where he was when the pandemic started in early 2020 “It was a bit surreal,” he said of reading about the outbreak while on deployment to the North African nation “It wasn’t till we got back to Germany and the case numbers started to suddenly rise that we fully realized that was beginning to happen here,” he recalled Like millions of health care workers around the world Stefan found out how difficult it is to treat COVID-19 especially when wearing the protective equipment that medics have to put on every time they enter one of the isolation rooms where coronavirus patients are kept but acknowledges the strain his civilian colleagues are under; several have quit over the past two years disillusioned by the burden placed on a profession that demands much but often pays comparatively little Stefan said he was proud of what he and his colleagues have achieved during the pandemic “This was a very trying time for all of us “The way the team stuck together and the camaraderie I think that’s going to stay with us for a long time after it all ends “I think we’re going to be dealing with this issue for a long time," he added "I don’t think this is going to be the last variant.” agrees there's no telling what twist the pandemic will take next After seeing its death toll from COVID-19 pass 100,000 and the imposition of new restrictions daily case numbers have eased somewhat recently the country's health minister warned Friday that “omicron puts everything we've seen during the pandemic so far in the shade.” The Netherlands which borders Germany just a few kilometers from Westerstede on Saturday announced a new lockdown because of the variant and simply see which patients we get," said Lehr Follow AP’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic: https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic rewritten or redistributed without permission Come support out 1999-2002 Star Boys in an international friendly match versus German visiting side FSV Westerstede FSV Westerstede has been sending their youth teams to California since 1980 as a cultural exchange program During their trip they visit local tourist attractions and play exhibition games 2018 8:30PM at SSF High School 400 B Street South San Francisco Tags: Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. 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Sign Up Weekly Digest JANE Kinsella has named her Gain Equine Nutrition Irish pony eventing squad for the upcoming pony Eventing European Championships in Westerstede Kinsella sends a squad of six to the championships with hopes high the team can reproduce some excellent recent results Ireland won bronze at the FEI European Championships for Ponies in Le Mans following on from a gold medal win in 2022 Squad members can also boast recent results with many of them in the ribbons at last week’s Kilguilkey House International Jessica O’Ryan who was second and Isabelle Walsh “I am very pleased to announce the squad for the upcoming pony European Championships in Westerstede,” Kinsella said “I would like to congratulate them on their performances leading to their selection and I would also like to take this opportunity to thank their parents and support teams on their hard work commitment and dedication to the High Performance pony eventing programme About us Contact us Advertise with us Company information Careers Privacy statement Terms of service Commenting policy Change cookies settings Posted in Around the Garden on April 9 2013, by Sonia Uyterhoeven Sonia Uyterhoeven is the NYBG‘s Gardener for Public Education It’s come in fits and starts this year only to vanish in an instant through heat or a heavy rain With all the yo-yoing we have experienced this winter the fluctuating temperatures have sent me and many of my colleagues home with lingering ailments as our bodies try to figure out what’s going on While walking through the Garden in these early days of spring I notice that Mother Nature is equally confused The persistent cold has slowed down the cycle of spring leaving us somewhere between one and two weeks behind schedule in terms of spring bloom Once the warm temperatures arrive in earnest What this means for now is that some of the early signs of spring–the ones that we usually like to see from our living room windows–are out and worth perusing This year I have seen many beautiful variations of Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Barmstedt Gold’ alternatively dressed in snow or warming in the cool spring sun I love ‘Barmstedt Gold’ for her bossy yellow petals and the deep red calyces that add dimension and intensity to the bloom is Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Westerstede’ upright vase shape of ‘Barmstedt Gold’ and falls in a similar size range–growing 8 to 12 feet tall–but has much paler yellow flowers which are absolutely divine Both varieties have long and showy ribbon-like petals; ‘Barmstedt Gold’ has the slight witch-hazel crinkle to its petals while those on ‘Westerstede’ have been neatly ironed out and extend like spines on a sea urchin Witch-hazels tolerate deer and are low-maintenance shrubs that grow in full sun to part shade they are worth investigating to brighten up your yard in late winter and early spring do you ever have one of those days where your intention is to do one thing but you find yourself completely distracted by something else but that’s exactly what is happening to me at this moment–it’s not like me to get sidelined by talk of shrubs when I set out to discuss bulbs So I am going to cram a few tidbits of information into a paragraph or two because I think it is important for you to see bulbs in action in the spring This should leave you better informed in the fall when it comes time to make planting selections As of right now, one of my favorite minor bulbs is out in force in the Garden, known as glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa ‘Pink Giant’). As the name suggests, glory-of-the-snow is large in stature–about the size of a ‘Tete-a-Tete’ daffodil–with a nice, pinkish cast to it. We have it planted with the miniature trumpet daffodil (Narcissus ‘Little Gem’) in our Seasonal Border forming a naturalistic drift in our entrance bed across from the train station these early spring bulbs intermingle with perennials While the bulbs punctuate the entire Border the ‘Little Gem’ is woven through Chinese astilbe (Astilbe ‘Vision in Pink’) with the bright yellow flowers of former complementing the rich as the garden phlox (Phlox paniculata ‘Blue Paradise’) begins to emerge in the spring its find young burgundy foliage is highlighted with ‘Pink Giant’ Not only is a color palette created with color harmonies and contrast but the small bulbs–each of them ranging from 6 to 8 inches in height–will not interfere with the growth of the perennials It is a very effective and healthy partnership 2900 Southern Boulevard Bronx, NY 10458-5126 Directions Call: 718.817.8700 Contact us Privacy Policy Press Room Jobs