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In western Austria, it is almost impossible to trace the contacts of corona cases. Tirol and Salzburg are pooling the capacities of the authorities, Vorarlberg is already having to restrict contact tracing.
Contact tracing in the state of Salzburg is slowly reaching its limits. “The situation in the district administrative authorities is very tense,” said Salzburg state spokesman Franz Wieser. “The increase in cases can hardly be processed.” In the next two weeks, 60 employees of the Salzburg state government will be at the disposal of the authorities to support the follow-up of the cases.
Those who tested positive and those in the first category would have priority. However, it may take a few days for a decision to be made. In Tennengau there is no longer such a strong increase in the daily increase in cases. On the other hand, there are “very dynamic developments” in Flachgau. Wieser described monitoring for school infections as particularly problematic. If a teacher teaches in several classes and is infected, you have to reach about 150 contact persons. “An agency is only busy with one case.”
Wieser currently described the situation in nursing homes as stable. These vulnerable areas would also be prioritized during processing. It is notable that the infections have spread across the state in the past two weeks. Collaboration with the population has recently been just as difficult: some of those affected refused to give contact details or get tested.
Wieser asked to minimize social contacts during the holidays. “We won’t have that window of time until Christmas.” It addresses a “very, very serious situation.” “It can turn into a catastrophe,” said the Salzburg state spokesman.
Tirol Package Capacities
Starting next week, the Tyrolean district authorities will fully focus on fighting the corona pandemic in the afternoons. The concerns of citizens who have nothing to do with the corona virus should be limited to the morning. “The situation is getting worse due to the rapidly increasing number of infections,” said state office director Herbert Forster. District authorities should focus on quickly clarifying the chains of infection.
Forster spoke of a “dire situation.” Complex contact tracing, slow processing of official measures or issuance of hundreds of quarantine notices increasingly posed major challenges for Tyrolean district authorities. Therefore, the district captains had agreed to pool their resources in the afternoons to combat the pandemic; otherwise, the corona operation would no longer be affordable. Citizens were asked to express their concerns in the morning. As before, visits to the official buildings are only possible by appointment.
Mastering the crown crisis can only be achieved if everyone adheres to hygiene and protection measures and reduces their contacts, Forster said. “We therefore call upon Tyrolese to refrain from meetings, especially in the private sphere, whether in the context of the extended weekend, as part of the holidays or on Halloween,” said the Director of the State Office.
Vorarlberg has to restrict contact tracing
Already on Friday night, the development in the number of new infections “pushed the infection team to its limits of capacity”, as it was called in a transmission from the country. “We will no longer be able to maintain the full scope of contact tracing in the near future and therefore we must focus on high-risk groups,” announced Health Minister Martina Rüscher (ÖVP).
“We will prioritize certain groups,” added Medical Director Wolfgang Grabher. “In addition to the sick, they are people from the same household, people with close contacts or with reference to especially vulnerable groups.” Consequently, an average of 115 new infections per day was recorded in Vorarlberg in the last seven days. Around 2,000 contact persons are connected to this newspaper.
According to Grabher, the current procedure is as follows: in the course of the first call to the infected person, in addition to the most important information about the person in question, a survey of close contact persons is initiated. All contact persons are registered through a digital form by the patient himself with a precise description of the contact and the time.
These contact cases are controlled by the infection team. People in their own home or with very intense contact or contact points with particularly health-prone groups are identified and separated by notification without further contact.
Initially planned for two weeks
This procedure is initially planned for two weeks, it serves to speed up the procedures and relieve the team of contagion. “The very elaborate search, as it is currently being carried out, is no longer possible with these very high numbers. So we are reacting and we are only talking about the reporting of the sick,” said Grabher. It is quite possible that not all contact persons will register in this way.
People who believe that they are contact persons with close contact and contact with especially vulnerable groups, but who have not been segregated, should contact the patient with a late registration request. People who have little contact with infected people are no longer actively contacted, but are asked to greatly reduce their social contacts and monitor their health.
Ages could help
The Ages “Contact Tracing Task Force” has also been available from the end of September to provide support in tracing contact persons: there are currently 60 multilingual employees who have been specially trained and authorized by the Ministry of Health. If necessary, it can also be increased, in a first step up to 100 tracers, said this Saturday the Agency for Health and Food Safety (Ages).
In the selection, multilingualism was emphasized; Contact trackers with native languages like Turkish or Serbian are also active in minimizing language barriers in contact person management. The Ages contact tracing is done over the phone, the workplace is in Vienna.
With the federal and state government case survey tool, district administrative authorities throughout Austria can publish defined cases in this tool for further processing by age if necessary. These orders are displayed with restricted authorizations for processing by the forces of Ages, which guarantees data protection. The collected data is automatically entered into the epidemiological reporting system (EMS) of the federal and state governments, the relevant district administrative authorities are automatically informed and can take the next steps, and also view the processing status of a case at any time. moment.
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