We receive different numbers from the chamber every day, said Rauch on the sidelines of a press conference on Tuesday. “They can’t simply have disappeared from the face of the earth.”
“I expect that clarity will be created,” said Rauch. Every step will be taken to ensure complete transparency from the chamber. 123,000 doses were purchased for public pharmacies. These were initially lying around for a long time and were not prescribed. By the end of October, 77,000 of these had been billed. “The chamber mightn’t explain to me where the rest were.”
The billing data is apparently incomplete, the Ministry of Health said. The chamber provided explanations for this, such as private prescriptions or destruction, but no evidence for this. “I demand complete billing data from the chamber. Where are these packs, how were they distributed?” said Rauch. All steps will now be taken to find the missing cans.
Highest corona wave since the start of the pandemic?
Meanwhile, virologist and immunologist Andreas Bergthaler spoke on Tuesday in the ORF-Ö1 morning journal of a “wave that in its shape, probably its height, has perhaps not yet been seen in the pandemic,” citing data from wastewater monitoring . Omicron sub-variants such as “Pirola” account for 35 percent of infections measured via wastewater. “One can now assume that these variants will continue to increase and spread more widely, and one might also conclude from this that the wave of infections may last a little longer,” said Bergthaler.
More on the subject: Pirola variant: Corona wave higher than ever
The virologist referred to well-known protective measures such as wearing a mask, testing options and vaccinations, while advocating easier access. Bergthaler also discussed efforts on the EU side, “whether one might integrate all of this data (whether the weather situation increases the probability of infection and the current infection situation overall, note) and then close a small column somewhere, so to speak, like with the weather report that indicates whether there is a particularly high risk of infection in the next two days, for example. This would also be conceivable for other diseases such as influenza or RSV (respiratory syncytial virus, note). “And I think that would simply help to empower people, to enable them to find the most sensible decision-making aid (regarding protective measures, note) for themselves,” said Bergthaler.
