Corona-News

Researchers at RWTH Aachen University have published a scientific article on the treatment of patients infected with COVID-19. In it, they analyze the course of disease in patients who were admitted to Uniklinik RWTH Aachen in February and March, and thus describe the first cohort of patients in Germany. The focus is on the clinical characteristics and laboratory results of patients with and without acute lung failure, the so-called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Fifty patients were treated, 16 of whom were transferred from other hospitals to Aachen’s University Hospital. The average age of the infected patients was 65 years, and an average of four days had passed between experiencing their first symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath and later admission to the University Hospital. The occurrence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is decisive for the course of the disease: 24 intubated patients with ARDS of varying severity were treated in the intensive care unit, 26 spontaneously breathing but oxygen-dependent infected patients without ARDS were treated in isolation on a normal ward. Compared to those without ARDS, patients with ARDS more frequently had a history of respiratory tract infections and were also more frequently overweight. There was no difference in the number of virus particles in the blood of the infected patients, but there were significant differences in the laboratory parameters: ARDS patients had elevated levels of leukocytes, interleukin-6, lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase and D-dimers. Patients without ARDS showed elevated inflammation values and had a fever for more than a week while also requiring oxygen during that time.

The German-language publication can be accessed here.

Press release

In view of the beautiful weather forecast for the upcoming weekend, the police and regulatory authorities are appealing to the public to continue to observe the contact ban and the measures currently in place. This also applies to parks, woods, and public squares. Further, they are asking the public to refrain from driving to leisure areas nearby.

During the Easter holidays, the Student Advice Center is available on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. via the hotline +49 241 80 94050. Requests for information are answered by e-mail on weekdays, and personal appointments can be made for meetings after the Easter holidays. Please contact studienberatung@rwth-aachen.de or use the appointment form on the website. A psychologist will be available from 9 a.m. to 12 noon for brief psychological counselling: +49 241 80 99424. If this should result in a need for further discussion, colleagues will be available after the consultation hours. Regular appointments for individual psychological counselling (by telephone) will only be made again for the period after the Easter holidays.

Even though the Robert Koch Institute no longer considers the Heinsberg district to be s particularly affected area, RWTH is asking employees from the Heinsberg district to continue working in home office.  This regulation is valid until the end of the Easter holidays, i.e. until April 19, 2020. All regulations and deadlines of RWTH concerning the subject area Corona can be found with immediate effect at

https://www.rwth-aachen.de/cms/root/Die-RWTH/Aktuell/Pressemitteilungen/Maerz-2020/NRW-Landesregierung-verschiebt-Start-des/~gybjo/Aktuell-geltende-Fristen-und-Termine

All RWTH members are asked to check this page regularly. The deadlines are regularly updated by the University’s crisis management team.

The Robert Koch Institute has declared the Netherlands a COVID19 risk area. This means that with immediate effect, RWTH has banned persons who have been in the Netherlands from entering University premises. Employees with residence in the Netherlands are obliged to work in home office, as far as this is possible. Alternative possibilities have to be discussed with their respective supervisors. RWTH also expressly points out the general ban on business trips to RKI risk areas, which applies even to short and undeclared business trips (e.g. to the Netherlands).

As the Easter holiday activities of RWTH are cancelled, a compilation with tips for families against boredom in the current period is listed for all parents and children on the website of the Family Services Center.

The TU9 universities have announced that they are sticking to their plans to stage the summer semester 2020 and associated teaching activities as far as possible as a regular and fully valid semester. The TU9 universities, of which RWTH is a member, are working hard to expand digital formats that can be used to implement teaching and examination courses, taking into account the fact that many classroom courses cannot be replaced by digital formats and that alternative examination and graduation options must be designed in a legally compliant manner. “Despite, or perhaps because of, the restrictions caused by the corona virus SARS-CoV-2, the summer semester must not be a lost semester for students,” said Prof. Wolfram Ressel, TU9 President and Rector of the University of Stuttgart. “We are facing up to the current challenges and are working hard and with the support of the federal and state governments on sustainable solutions. The crisis caused by the corona virus poses a major challenge to social, economic, health and university systems worldwide. We are aware of our responsibility and are actively working against a social and economic standstill”.

Those who live abroad but have German health insurance and meet the current requirements can make use of the municipal smear centres in Aachen and Eschweiler. Please contact +49241 5198 7500.

Based on the current developments concerning the spread of coronavirus and the recommendations of the respective authorities, further measures are being implemented to contain the spread and to ease the burden on the health care system. All sports operations, including subscription operations, sports facility rental and leasing must be discontinued until May 10, 2020. All offers of the University Sports Center (HSZ) are affected without exception, regardless whether they take place in university, municipal or external partner facilities, including the closure of all sports halls, tennis courts, the beach sports and cage football facilities, the all-weather pitch, the natural grass pitch, the outdoor fitness facilities, the Wildenhof water sports facility, the RWTH gym, the sauna, regardless of the sports use, including changing rooms and sanitary facilities. The date for resuming operations and the start of registration for SoSe 2020 will depend on future developments and will be communicated on the HSZ website at short notice. During this time, the service point can only be reached by telephone, e-mail or by arrangement. The service point is not available from 6 to 17 April.

For the approximately 770,000 students at North Rhine-Westphalia’s universities, the 2020 summer semester should not be a lost semester. This was emphasized by the chairpersons of the state rectors’ conferences of the universities and the universities of applied sciences, Lambert T. Koch and Marcus Baumann, in a press release. A large majority of the students are extremely motivated to take innovative paths together with their lecturers, they say, and an extensive switch to online formats for teaching and examinations will require numerous legal adjustments in the near future. In order to get these changes underway, a paragraph is to be added to the current Higher Education Act to enable measures to deal with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This paragraph is planned to empower the Ministry of Science to issue a legal ordinance that will facilitate the use of digital formats in teaching and for examinations and provide the universities with the necessary legal security. It is also intended to make regulations on the standard period of study, the enrolment process and other important aspects of the work of the universities more flexible: “The sole aim is to act quickly in the interests of our students so that we can make as much out of the semester as possible. We therefore ask the Parliament for cross-party solidarity so that the amendment of the law including the ordinance can be initiated as quickly as possible. Every day counts. After all, we expect no more and no less from the teachers than to change their teaching formats within a few days, sometimes completely,” explains Koch.