BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's constitutional court ruled on Tuesday that lawmakers must set out legally binding criteria to protect people with disabilities and pre-existing conditions in pandemic-related triage situations.

       Nine people with disabilities and pre-existing conditions filed the complaints at the court in Karlsruhe, as the coronavirus pandemic pushes hospitals to their limits.

       Guidelines from German medical organisations including the DIVI association for emergency medicine have so far named probability of survival - taking into account the patient's frailty as well as existing diseases - as the main criterion for triage.

       The complainants fear that due to their statistically lower level of survival, they would always have lowest priority for an intensive care bed.

       (Reporting by Ursula Knapp, Writing by Miranda Murray, Editing by Zuzanna Szymanska)