At the beginning of January, the Robert Koch Institute reported the highest seven-day incidence in the rural district Meißen, eastern Germany. Between the year turning into 2020/21 the pandemic raged like nowhere else in Germany. In the local specialist hospital, the Coswig Pulmonary Center, medical staff worked in full protective clothing to avoid infection of the virus. Vaccination is raising new hopes. But even the medical staff is sceptical.
Otherwise, police officers monitor compliance with Saxony’s Corona ordinance on the streets. A crisis team struggles to follow the contact restrictions rules. And a mobile team of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund starts with the first vaccinations at the nursing home. But the Coronavirus also tightened social inequality, as the helpers of the mobile board in Coswig have experienced. And at the crematorium, the morticians are working extra shifts.
The film is about fighting against the Coronavirus and accompanies doctors, nurses and caregivers at the specialist hospital in Coswig for a few weeks. It observes how people in an entire region deal with exceptional situations: those in the hospital or on the crisis team who try to keep the situation under control and save as many lives as possible, and those who confront their fears, their powerlessness and being overwhelmed. What remains of the experience and what can be learned about our health system and also social interactions? Do nurses have to accept constant excessive demands? Is there an obligation to be vaccinated? And where is the solidarity in the crisis?
First broadcast, 29 March 2021 ARD 23:35 + ARD-Mediathek (12 months)