Corona measures: Traffic light commission puts its own recommendation into perspective

The Commission initially advocated the reintroduction of suitable preventive measures, and shortly therefollowing for their “implementation”.

the Infection record numbers Immediately following the wide opening, the nerves are on edge. The Corona Commission spoke out today in favor of reintroducing suitable preventive measures. Later, the own recommendation was put into perspective and is now only for “the implementation of suitable preventive measures”, without becoming more specific. The Chancellery and Ministry of Health see no need for action anyway.

What happened at the commission meeting was somewhat peculiar. Initially, the comparatively sharp formulation was passed with only one abstention – namely the representation of the Chancellor’s Office. Then the committee apparently lost its own courage and chairwoman Katharina Reich had the weakened text voted on. He found it much less popular. With seven abstentions, however, there was just a majority.

Rauch: “Tightening would not be communicable”

Department head Johannes Rauch (Greens) obviously doesn’t see the whole thing as explosively as his top officials in the commission. A statement from the ministry on Thursday evening said: “We have to be very careful not to lose acceptance and understanding among the population. A tightening of the corona measures a few days following the extensive opening would not be comprehensible to the population.” According to the forecasts published by the Corona Commission itself, it is not necessary either. An overload of the health system is not foreseeable in any federal state.

It was pointed out, for example, that one should not only look at the pure number of infections, but also at the proportion of symptomatic diseases and subsequently also at the situation in hospitals and health facilities. Admittedly, things don’t look too rosy there either, according to the traffic light documents.

The number of asymptomatic cases is just 29 percent and this is largely thanks to Vienna, which has a broad testing strategy and reports more than two-thirds of cases as asymptomatic. For comparison: In Tyrol it is one percent, in Carinthia it is seven. The hospital forecasts do not sound particularly favorable either. In the forecast for Salzburg, the utilization of the normal stations in two weeks is 129 percent, in Tyrol 117 percent, in Lower Austria 114 percent and in Burgenland 109 percent.

Of course, it is up to the federal states themselves to take stricter measures in their area, writes the Ministry of Social Affairs. The federal government only defines the lower edge of the measures. From today’s perspective, this is correct.

The Commission justified the desire for preventive measures with the increasing number of cases and the increasing burden in the area of ​​the normal wards in the hospitals. There is at least indirect criticism of the suspension of compulsory vaccination. This was “always seen as a tried and tested means of preventing the health system from being overloaded”.

In any case, the wide openings in connection with the new Omikron sub-variant, which is currently taking command in Austria, make the Corona traffic light shine red once more. While the numbers have tended to decline slightly in the past few weeks, the 14-day trend is now pointing upwards once more, in some cases strongly. The system risk at the normal wards is also increasing, according to the working document of the responsible commission.

The development is unfavorable compared to the previous week. While Vienna was already close to leaving the maximum risk zone, things are now looking different once more. The risk number used to determine coloring has gone up everywhere. A week ago it was 169 for the federal territory, but it is now almost 215. In order to at least get into the second highest risk zone “Orange”, the 100 should not be exceeded.

Vienna with a better risk number

Vienna remains clearly the best federal state and currently has a value of 122 for the risk number, which, in addition to pure infections, also takes into account parameters such as vaccination status and patient age. Last week the value was 105. Stable bottom – this time with a value of 363 – is Tyrol. The increase in cases in the past two weeks was particularly strong in Burgenland at 22 percent, comparatively the lowest in the federal capital at four percent.

The situation is also developing relatively unfavorably on the normal wards of the hospitals. Burgenland is already in the double-digit range for Covid-specific occupancy. The percentage is likely to increase once more by around 50 percent to 15 percent in the coming weeks. In all other federal states, the number of Covid cases in hospitals will also increase, including in intensive care units, albeit to a manageable extent there.

The other parameters show hardly any abnormalities compared to the weeks before. Furthermore, the majority of asymptomatic cases are discovered in Vienna. In two out of three of the infections found in the federal capital, there are no typical symptoms. In no other federal state is there a value that exceeds one third. As usual, tests are mainly carried out in the east. In Vienna there are almost 107,000 tests per 100,000 inhabitants. Burgenland and Lower Austria follow relatively closely behind. It’s also a tradition that people in the West don’t enjoy testing. Tyrol, Salzburg and Vorarlberg bring up the rear in this ranking.

This time, a Lower Austrian district, namely Scheibbs, has the highest pure case incidence. The city of Villach has the lowest incidence, followed by Steyr-Stadt and Linz-Stadt. Only eight districts or regions have a declining 14-day trend.

(WHAT)