(ANSA-AFP) - BERLIN, NOV 18 - With intensive care beds filling up and health staff running short, a hospital in Bavaria's Freising made an unprecedented decision to transfer a coronavirus patient to northern Italy for treatment. Through the highs and lows spanning 18 months of the pandemic, Germany had on many occasions taken in patients from neighbouring countries as hospitals elsewhere ran out of space. But a fourth ferocious wave has sent infections to record highs in Europe's biggest economy, putting hospitals in parts of the country under immense strain and forcing some to look elsewhere in the EU for help.

While the absolute number of patients in intensive care still lies below the peak a year ago, this time around, hospitals are also ailing from the double whammy of a shortfall in personnel that has seriously hampered their ability to cope. "Last week, on Wednesday or Thursday, we had to transfer a patient by helicopter to Merano," said Thomas Marx, 43, medical director at the hospital in Freising, a town with 50,000 inhabitants that is about 350 kilometres (220 miles) away by road. (ANSA-AFP).