Many expected it: With the significantly lower temperatures, the numbers of CoV infections are also increasing again. The number of active cases has increased significantly in the past few days: from Tuesday to Wednesday there were more than 2,000 confirmed new infections in Lower Austria.
In the hospitals, too, the numbers have recently increased again. There are currently 224 people with an infection in a Lower Austrian hospital, 12 of whom have to be treated in intensive care units. Nevertheless, epidemiologist Gerald Gartlehner from Danube University Krems assumes that this winter will be lighter than in the past two years – as long as the omicron variant is retained.
noe.ORF.at: Professor Gartlehner, this increase is probably not surprising. What are you expecting in the coming weeks?
Gerald Gartlehner: No, it is not surprising, it is exactly what we expected that the number of infections will increase again with the beginning of the colder season. There are probably two reasons for the rapidly increasing numbers at the moment: on the one hand, more infections, people are more indoors again, but they are also testing more and more sick people are found again. I think this trend will continue for the next few weeks as well. Whether there will really be a wave and how high this wave will be cannot really be predicted at the moment.
noe.ORF.at: Let’s remember last winter, there were staff shortages in the critical infrastructure, in hospitals. Could it be that we’re getting to that point again?
Gartlehner: I think we’re in a completely different situation this year than last year. Last year if we remember we had the delta wave, that was really a severe form of coronavirus infection. Now we still have Omikron and we have built up a very good level of immunity in the population over the course of this year. That means we’re going into this upcoming winter much more protected than last year.
noe.ORF.at: At the moment we have no coronavirus measures, for example no mask requirement. Do you think that some measures will come back in the coming weeks and months?
Gartlehner: Wearing a mask always makes sense if you want to protect yourself. Masks are really one of the most effective measures. I think there is one situation where the hospitals might really come under pressure, and that is when a flu epidemic and a CoV epidemic coincide and then more hospital admissions take place. Then you would probably have to reintroduce a mask requirement. But I don’t think Omicron alone will make it all that bad, as things stand at the moment.
noe.ORF.at: Some experts think that the end of the pandemic is slowly in sight, while others say they expect a very strong wave in winter. What’s your assessment?
Gartlehner: The corona virus will stay with us and we have to be prepared to deal with it. We’re really lucky in autumn that there aren’t any new variants, it’s still Omikron, it’s relatively mild in terms of progression. We have built up quite a bit of immunity as a population. I’m not overly concerned about the next few weeks and months unless some other variant emerges and comes back to us.