German Patient Airlifts Start as Covid Wave Strains Hospitals

  • Cases at record levels, new variant from Africa a fresh threat
  • Air Force to fly patients from hospitals that are at capacity

Doctors and nurses work in the Covid-19 intensive care unit at University Hospital Leipzig, on Nov. 18. 

Photographer: Jens Schlueter/Getty Images

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

German health authorities warned that the current wave of Covid-19 cases may swamp the nation’s health-care system if residents don’t act quickly to reduce their contacts.

The military is starting the transfer of intensive-care patients within the country from areas whose hospital capacity is the most strained, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.