[ad_1]
A “Policy Brief”, a statement by Gerry Foitik, Federal Rescue Commander of the Austrian Red Cross (ÖRK), from last Sunday appeared in press reports on Monday. Under “winter tourism”, Foitik notes that stopping testing with contact persons “1” would result in a “green” assessment of EU partners when the numbers drop.
“I need clarification,” said SPÖ federal manager Christian Deutsch. The NEOS were surprised in a broadcast. While they welcomed some of the content of the letter, they also announced a parliamentary question on the Winter Tourism Passage.
Foitik points to Slovenia as an example
In an interview with the APA, Foitik denied that it was a manipulation of the crown numbers. With the different current testing strategies, it would not be possible to make real comparisons on the ECDC map, which Austria currently uses the color “red”. The Federal Rescue Commander stated that the tests of people who are already in quarantine would not cause any change from the current point of view, because in the first place they do not pose a threat to the population and that the “assessment of the EU partners” i.e. those based on the Union Health Agency ECDC traffic lights, due to different approaches in the respective states: Slovenia is no longer testing people who have had contact with infected people and are therefore quarantined and It therefore has a “better” EU assessment than Austria.
The incidence could decrease by 500 daily
Without the “1” test contact, the incidence would immediately drop by 500 daily, Foitik said in the report. Deutsch saw this as a “tangible scandal”, while Foitik in this consideration the possibility of freeing up resources, as can also be seen in the letter that the APA has received under the heading “Test strategy”: This is “quick test of the symptomatic People (….) – Contact persons “1” are sent to quarantine – It is NOT necessary to test these, because individually without consequences (a negative test result does not exempt you from quarantine, a positive test has no therapeutic consequences for asymptomatic people) “, said in the letter to the crisis team of SKKM.
Exceptions were made to not test the “1s” in the case of high-risk contacts, or in the case of a change in quarantine policy from ten to five days. In the case of exponential development, resource increases can not only be achieved in terms of staff, but also through additional digital instruments, Foitik wrote.
SPÖ: “Completely unacceptable”
In any event, the SPÖ demanded full clarification from the federal government on the letter. “Completely unacceptable” is any attempt to artificially turn Corona’s traffic light green by reducing the number of tests on contact persons, according to SPÖ’s Federal Managing Director.
NEOS: “Less testing cannot be the solution”
Many projects contained in the Red Cross “Policy Brief” are to be welcomed, said NEOS MP Douglas Hoyos in a broadcast on the idea paper for the crisis team. Digitization of the 1450 hotline, for example, has been in demand for a long time. However, the link between fewer tests and winter tourism caused astonishment. Hoyos: “Less testing, in order to keep official infection figures low, cannot be the solution for winter tourism; specific measures that target the right gears can be.” NEOS announces a parliamentary question to discuss the background to that passage.
