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Contact tracing, which has now been handled again in Vorarlberg, should not be understood as a surrender to the sharp increase in the number of corona cases. State Health Minister Martina Rüscher (ÖVP) highlighted on Saturday. “We are converting so that we can be even faster in dealing with Category I contacts,” Rüscher emphasized. The infection team in Vorarlberg is well positioned and the contact tracing is one of the best compared to other federal states.
Vorarlberg made headlines across Austria on Friday with the state’s own broadcast, according to which “the infection team had reached its capacity limit” and contact tracing could no longer be fully maintained. In an interview with the APA, Rüscher assured us that we are still a long way from a state of crisis that could have arisen.
The armed forces help
The Vorarlberg infection team is housed in an exhibition hall in Dornbirn, around 100 workplaces are available there. The armed forces are also involved “to a great extent” (Rüscher). Re-expanding the team, as happened in early fall, does not solve the problem of engaging in conversation with Category I contacts faster than before.
So far, all Category II contact persons have been called – those with whom infected persons have only had loose contact. “They sent you a health diary asking you to fill it out, days later they returned it and the person called again,” Rüscher said, describing the above procedure. In other federal states it was never done that way. With contact persons in category II, you now go back to being faster in dealing with people who have had direct contact with infected people.
The chain of infection
One measure for this is that a notification is now issued for an entire household if there is a positive case. So far, residents have been called individually and separated by individual notification. Another is that all contact persons are immediately registered by the patient himself using a digital form with a precise description of the contact and the time.
It was found that, despite the call to restrict social contacts, the chains of infection had not shortened in recent weeks. “Shorter lists would help us more,” said the regional councilor.
