On Thursday morning, the president of the Luxembourgish Hospital Federation (FHL) joined our colleagues at RTL Radio to discuss the country's vaccine rollout.
Around 7,800 employees from the hospital sector have been vaccinated thus far, which equals 68% of staff members. Director Junck believes this rate to be too low, but emphasised on Thursday morning that 1,300 further employees from the sector have now requested to be vaccinated.
Since infection numbers in the Grand Duchy are on the rise again, the number of hospital beds occupied by Covid-19 patients has also increased. Experts believe this to be the case due to the circulation of the British variant, which is not only more infectious, but also more pathogenic.
Junck is unsure whether or not to expect a third wave. He explained however that hospitals have learned from the past year and are now much better prepared. Nevertheless, it can still occur that they have to decrease their regular activities once again to cater for the additional patients.
When asked about the situation at the Hôpitaux Robert Schuman, Junck denied to comment on what he can so far only deem as rumours. He further noted that the vaccination mandate could have reasonably be interpreted in different ways, as is the case for many legal documents. Junck finally conveyed that he cannot imagine that one hospital should have managed to make an independent order for vaccines.
