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“Situation that we will not allow”
On Thursday the question was discussed with experts about the value of the newly infected in which the national health system would be overloaded, and if this would be 6,000 positive cases per day, as estimated two weeks ago. “That was confirmed to us,” said the chancellor. There are currently around 4,500 new infected people. Much more relevant, however, is that these figures are doubling on average in a week, Kurz emphasized.
The overload of the healthcare system would not only mean that planned operations would have to be postponed, but in extreme cases, doctors would also have to decide who to help or not. “This is a situation that we will not allow,” the foreign minister said.
No information on the action before Saturday
What could be the content of the measures, which will be announced on Saturday, initially there was no information from the government, not even regarding the start time. For the All Saints weekend, Kurz referred to recommendations to reduce social contacts and avoid family gatherings. It is clear that the health system should not be overloaded: “We will not allow doctors to decide who is allowed to live and who should die.”
“We are not in a phase of hours,” Kurz said on the question of when the new measures will be applied. The development was foreseeable for a long time. On Saturday – after the conversations with the social partners announced for Friday and those on Saturday with the governors and parliamentary groups and the information from the Federal President – citizens will be informed about the necessary measures, he referred to the schedule.
It is clear that Austria is currently heading towards a phase “where we have to take massive countermeasures because otherwise hospitals and intensive care medicine would be overwhelmed”. “Nothing that we are currently experiencing in Europe or Austria is surprising. We have always known that when we enter into exponential growth, we have to stop it, because otherwise intensive capacities would be overloaded ”. The relevant question is not how many are sick, but rather: “How fast is the growth.”
Urgent appeals to the population
And Kurz again called on the population to support the measures: “The steps that we as the federal government can take are one part, the other is the participation of the population.” The challenge is “that there is a certain fatigue in many people, who no longer want to do it,” Kurz said. In this regard, he does not reproach anyone, “because I personally understand it very well”, they are restrictions that nobody wants.
In any case, the federal government’s strategy against the pandemic “has not changed and will not change. Because what is the alternative? I have not heard of a sensible alternative,” Kurz said. Nor do they want – as is already necessary in other countries – “Austrian patients have to be treated in other countries because the capacity is insufficient.”
Telephone sick leave is possible again
The Minister of Health, Anschober, underlines the urgency of new measures. The number of infections increased dramatically, “dramatically and dramatically across Europe.” A large package of measures had already been taken last weekend, but in view of the continued sharp increase in the number of infections, it was clear that this would not be enough.
Anchober offered the possibility to reactivate the telephone sick leave. The minister said they are currently in talks.
5,800 new corona infections per day
Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) expects up to 5,800 new infections per day over the next week. If this trend continues, “the capacity limits could be exceeded in mid-November,” Anschober said. That is why there is now “a great need for action to stop this development.” The problem is that the average age is currently increasing and infections are increasing in nursing homes and nursing homes.
“Patients are growing rapidly”
Herwig Ostermann, Managing Director of Gesundheit Österreicher, explained that for every 100 new patients, an average of one person comes to an intensive care unit and has to be treated there for an average of 12.5 days. Patients are “increasing rapidly.” According to the forecast, 400 to 500 patients will be in intensive care units by mid-November, Ostermann said. These can also be “supplied”. On average, there are 2,000 intensive care beds in Austria; According to Ostermann, these can be occupied by 1,800 people. About 60 percent of them need the beds acutely, that is, after accidents or due to interventions that cannot be moved. Therefore, there is a potential of 700 beds that can be made available to patients in an emergency.
Klaus Markstaller, president of the Austrian Society for Anesthesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine (ÖGARI), emphasized that an expansion of intensive care capabilities was not possible in the short term. If intensive care medicine reaches its limit when the number of new infections exceeds 6,000, “then we could no longer provide the best possible medicine,” Markstaller warned.
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(Source: SALZBURG24 / APA)
