Sick leave in companies is increasing. A dwindling willingness to protect against infection is also blamed for this.
Schwerin (dpa / mv) – Companies in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are seeing an increasing number of cases of illness. “We hear from all corners of the country that sick leave in companies is increasing,” said Sven Müller, deputy general manager of the VUMV entrepreneurs’ association in Schwerin. “Whereas in the beginning it was mainly the children who had to be looked after at home due to illness, now it’s increasingly the employees themselves,” says Müller. The high sick leave is triggered by different waves of infection. However, Müller also blamed the dwindling willingness of the population to comply with infection control measures such as distance, hygiene measures and masks.
According to the Ministry of Health, general practitioners in the north-east are currently registering an increasing number of respiratory infections. The monitoring set up for this purpose by the State Office for Health and Social Affairs (Lagus) has already shown a significant increase in its current weekly report for the last week of November. From a projected just over 40,000 cases nationwide in the previous week, the projected number of patients with respiratory infections rose to more than 70,000 in the week of November 21. According to the information, rhinoviruses, the RS virus and influenza are responsible for around half of this increase.
According to Lagus, the number of doctor visits also increased significantly by around 56 percent to more than 4700 in the same period. A similar development had not been observed in previous years.
