Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: wave of colds plus omicron equal high sick leave in MV

According to the DAK, significantly more people than a year ago were ill in the first six months of 2022.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: wave of colds plus omicron equal high sick leave in MV

According to the DAK, significantly more people than a year ago were ill in the first six months of 2022. The relaxation of the corona virus was followed by a big wave of colds.

Schwerin (dpa / mv) - cough, runny nose, omicron: According to the health insurance company DAK, the number of sick leave rose sharply in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the first half of 2022. The sickness rate of their insured was 5.5 percent after 4.6 percent in the first half of 2021, the health insurance company said. This means that 55 out of 1000 employees were on sick leave every day.

In addition to corona infections with the highly contagious omicron variant, colds also increased sharply after the reduction in corona measures in spring. According to its own statements, the health insurance company evaluated all sick leave from around 67,000 DAK-insured employees in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the first half of the year.

According to this, there were 995 days off for every 100 employees in the north-east, 159 more than in the first six months of the previous year. The number of days absent due to cough and runny nose alone has skyrocketed from 67 per 100 insured persons in the first half of 2021 to 178 now.

With a share of 17.9 percent, respiratory diseases were the second most common cause of absence from work after musculoskeletal diseases (18.4). A DAK spokeswoman called for sick leave to be permanently established by telephone in order to reduce the risk of infection in doctor's offices. Third place was absenteeism due to mental illness.

Losses due to Corona increased from 13 to 92 days of absence per 100 insured persons. Omikron has caused more lost work than any previous variant, it said. The Omikron wave also caused more corona absences in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania than in any other federal state. Employees in medical and educational professions were particularly affected.