German media on Wednesday reported that in southern parts of the country, patients went directly to hospitals for help instead of their own house doctors.
"The emergency departments in Bavaria are all completely full," Eduard Fuchshuber, a spokesman of the state's hospital association, was quoted by N24 television as saying. "I have never seen situations as extreme as this year."
Similar situations were seen in states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Lower Saxony where patient beds had to be set in hallways in some hospitals and planned surgeries and operations had to be postponed due to capability limits.
The latest data from Robert Koch Institute showed the number of influenza patients in Germany has exceeded 18,000 since October last year, more than a previously high amount of patients in 2012/2013 flu season.
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
