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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. According to Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Grne), 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 gradually changing. 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.
The Minister of Health located flaws in some federal states due to long waiting times for corona tests. Many authorities had increased their staff, he said in 1 “Journal zu Gast” on Saturday. In Vienna, however, “you have to have large amounts of money” for this. Anschober 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 testers only arrive in days and the results are missing. A medical hotline can only be as good if it has enough staff, the minister noted and, after speaking with the city government, expressed confidence that Vienna will do its best.
Vaccine expectations in the first half of 2021
Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (VP) hopes that a coronavirus vaccine can be used from the first half of 2021. “From today’s perspective, it is to be expected that in the first half of 2021 not only will a vaccine be investigated, it is also approved and used in Europe ”. This forecast regarding the further fight against the corona pandemic uerste Kurz at the end of his visit to Switzerland after a meeting with the CEOs of the major pharmaceutical companies in Basel. “A sigh of relief and realistic changes” that he considers “realistic” for the summer of 2021, Kurz confirmed in previous statements.
As the news magazine “profil” reports in its current issue, Austria is sending more money to Brussels for the purchase of potential Covid-19 vaccines. Specifically, a little less than 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. In Austria there were 813 cases, the number of actively infected people was 7,748 on Saturday. 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, with 108 cases of Covid-19 added 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. The Upper Austrian health authorities announced that all employees will be examined on Sunday and Monday.
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 at Corning.
Meanwhile, the capacity limit for Covid-19 patients was reached about a week ago at Vienna’s first hospital. 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 crisis medical team of the city of Vienna, there are currently 180 Covid-19 patients in the hospital of the federal capital, 22 of them require intensive care. A total of 400 normal beds and 150 in intensive care units are available in the federal capital for coronavirus patients who have to be treated in the hospital, Pederiva said. Patients with SARS-CoV-2 would be taken to the Floridsdorf (formerly KH Nord) and Ottakring clinics; there are enough beds available in the Covid rooms there. Currently a Covid station is also being prepared at the Hietzing Clinic. As soon as the capacity utilization in an existing one is 80 percent, the next one will be prepared, Pederiva said. “If necessary, more bed capacity can be made available to Covid patients immediately,” said the spokesman for the health association (formerly KAV).
