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There were 349 people in the hospital on Saturday, 84 of them in intensive care units, 22 more than on Friday. The first Viennese hospital has already reached its capacity limit. According to Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens), the number of intensive care patients could reach triple digits by the end of the month.
“For weeks the number of hospitalizations was decoupled from the growing number of infections due to the significantly lower average age of those who tested positive,” Anschober said in a broadcast, “this now seems to be changing step by step.” According to the minister, the forecasts for intensive care patients are “clearly upward” and assume around 110 intensive care patients by the end of the month.
Long waiting times for corona tests
The Minister of Health identified failures in some federal states due to long wait times for corona tests. Although many authorities had increased staff, he said in Ö1 “Journal zu Gast” on Saturday. In Vienna, however, “you have to have huge amounts of money” for this. Anchober denied that the government had reacted too late to the increase in numbers. However, it is a “serious mistake” if, for example, after a call to the Corona hotline, the evaluators only arrive for days and the results are pending for a long time. A medical hotline can only be as good if it has enough staff, the minister noted, and after speaking with the city government, he was confident that Vienna would do its best.
Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP), meanwhile, expects a coronavirus vaccine to be used already in the first half of 2021. “From the current perspective, it is to be expected that in the first half of 2021 not only will a vaccine, but also approved and used in Europe ”. This prognosis about further fight against the corona pandemic was extremely brief at the end of his visit to Switzerland after a meeting with CEOs of leading pharmaceutical companies in Basel. “A sigh of relief and realistic changes” that he considers “realistic” for the summer of 2021, Kurz said in previous statements.
As reported by the news magazine “profil” in its current issue, Austria is sending more money to Brussels for the purchase of possible Covid 19 vaccines. Specifically, almost 22 million euros will initially flow. The increase was decided in the Council of Ministers last Wednesday. So far, there are 2.25 billion euros available across the EU.
The number of new SARS-CoV-2 infections in Austria in the last 24 hours was again over 800. There were 813 cases in Austria, bringing the number of actively infected people on Saturday to 7,748 people. The death toll also rose by two: 765 people have died as a result of the coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic. A total of 37,657 people have tested positive so far. Nationwide, more than 18,000 tests were entered into the Resident Epidemiological Registry (EMS) in the last 24 hours.
As for the new infections, the federal capital again counted 432 on Saturday. There was an increase of more than 100 in Upper Austria, where there were 108 cases of Covid 19 compared to Friday. Cases were again reported in a meat processing plant. Among the new infections that have been known are seven employees of a meat processing company in the district of Ried im Innkreis who tested positive. Over the course of Sunday and Monday, all employees will be assessed, the Upper Austrian health authorities announced.
70 new cases in Lower Austria
On Saturday 80 new cases were reported in Tyrol, 70 in Lower Austria, 58 in Styria and 32 in Vorarlberg. Salzburg recorded 18 new infections, ten from Burgenland and only five new infections were recorded in Carinthia.
Meanwhile, the capacity limit for Covid 19 patients was reached in Vienna’s first hospital about a week ago. The Favoriten Clinic (formerly Kaiser-Franz-Josef Spital) no longer accepts intensive care or normal patients. The press spokesman for the Vienna Health Association, Markus Pederiva, stressed that there are still enough beds in other hospitals.
According to the spokesman for the Vienna City Medical Crisis Team, 180 Covid-19 patients are currently in the hospital in the federal capital, 22 of them need intensive medical care. A total of 400 normal beds and 150 in intensive care units are available in the federal capital for coronavirus patients who must be treated in hospital, Pederiva said. SARS-CoV-2 sufferers would be taken to the Floridsdorf (formerly KH Nord) and Ottakring clinics, there are enough beds available in the Covid wards there. Currently a Covid station is also being prepared at the Hietzing Clinic. As soon as the occupancy rate is 80 percent in an existing one, the next one will be prepared, Pederiva said. “If necessary, additional beds can be made immediately available for Covid patients,” said the spokesman for the health association (formerly KAV).
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