200,000 massive corona tests: Teachers will be screened on December 5-6 – Coronavirus Vienna

Plans for the planned mass corona tests in Austria are ready. On the first weekend in December, Saturdays and Sundays (5 and 6), and therefore at the end of the full shutdown, all state and federal teachers and kindergarten supervisors (about 200,000 people) will be screened. The 40,000 police officers will be examined on December 7 and 8. Shortly before Christmas, an extensive series of tests is planned for the entire population. Participation is voluntary.

In preparation for mass testing before Christmas, free testing is also conducted on the population of selected communities with high incidence values ​​in the first week of December. A second series of massive tests are planned across the country early in the new year, the government announced Friday.

Seven million rapid antigen tests have already been ordered and new orders are being planned. The costs of the first seven million tests amount to 50 million euros. Roche tests (four million tests) and Siemens (three million tests) are used.

Central processing and control of mass testing rests with the armed forces and the Ministry of Health. The Armed Forces have already supported the handling of mass tests in Slovakia and therefore have technical knowledge in handling national special operations. The defense department is already intensively in preparatory work for the logistical and organizational handling of the tests, according to a government press document.

In addition to logistics and organization, army paramedics are also called in to carry out the tests. In total, the Armed Forces will support the execution of the massive tests with several thousand soldiers. Additionally, health authorities, blue light organizations, firefighters and volunteers will also be on duty.

Samples are only taken by trained healthcare professionals. To this end, the health authorities, together with the armed forces and rescue organizations, will provide the appropriate personnel and train additional personnel. The result of an antigen test is available after about 15 minutes.

The processing and acceptance of the first tests for the teaching and supervisory staff on December 5 and 6 is carried out in about 100 test stations in all the district capitals. Additional test stations are possible for large areas. The Ministry of Education coordinates the information to all teaching and supervisory personnel about the time and course of the test through the state departments of education and the district school authorities. This series of tests includes around 200,000 people throughout Austria.

In a second step, the around 40,000 police officers will be examined on December 7-8. The organization of the tests is carried out by the state police headquarters. These tests are also carried out through the around 100 test stations in the district capitals.

Additionally, screening programs have been expanding for weeks with the focus on “Elder Protection and Nursing Homes.” 315,000 tests have already been performed and another three million tests have been secured for a tightly knit test network in nursing homes and nursing homes, according to the government.

Chief Teacher Representative Paul Kimberger is open to mass volunteer testing for educators the weekend before the school’s planned opening. “Basically, I think that the offer to be tested voluntarily is positive,” the president of the ARGE professors at the GÖD told the APA. “That gives more security.”

However, there are still talks over the next week about how the organization and logistics should work. “Everything is still largely open.”

Plans unveiled today for the planned mass corona tests in Austria also dominated the online conference of state health officials on Friday. They quickly called for a corresponding concept and parallel expansion of the infrastructure. “This will not be feasible with the current and extremely stressed staffing, logistics and IT structure,” said the Salzburg LHStv. Christian Stöckl (ÖVP), current president of the health officials.

Therefore, it must be ensured that the testing paths in the communities, the laboratory capacities and the logistics are extended to the contact tracing. Additionally, electronic data and reporting systems must be linked so that any corona group can be quickly identified. “We will have our hands full to install these structures,” said Stöckl.

Many questions still arise for Styrian health adviser Juliane Bogner-Strauss (ÖVP). “Today we got information on how it could work. But we need to know more so we can coordinate it well.” Who gets the cut? What personnel has the competence to carry out the diagnosis? How do you handle contact tracing and separation notices? “It will probably no longer be possible to make an official separation for every positive case,” Bogner-Strauss said, suggesting an automatic separation. But it remains to be clarified how such a scheme could be.

Vienna City Councilor for Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ) stressed that the antigen tests provided for mass testing are particularly significant in the event of a negative result. “But we know that they have a not insignificant proportion of false positive results.” There are estimates that if the entire population is tested, up to 50,000 false positives and another 50,000 true positive results can be expected. “That means that 100,000 cases would have to rerun a PCR test as a control.” If 60,000 or 70,000 people have to be quarantined, an approach is needed that is also legally upheld. Because without a separation decision, previously there was no compensation or reimbursement for employers, and employees often had to take vacations.

At today’s conference, it was also discussed with the Minister of Health, Rudolf Anschober (Greens), that vaccination against Covid-19 should be carried out in three phases. At first, residents and staff of nursing homes, as well as health workers, are vaccinated. In the second phase, the armed forces and blue light organizations, educators, and people over 65 follow. In the third phase, vaccination will be extended to the entire population in order to combat the pandemic in a comprehensive manner.

The problem of having to convince some people to get a corona vaccine first does not arise anyway, Hacker emphasized: “In view of the number of vaccination doses that we will receive in the first months of next year, we can be happy to vaccinate them. to be able to vaccinate “. Under current federal government plans, it will take at least a year before a high vaccination rate is achieved.

State health officials also addressed issues more or less unrelated to Corona on Friday: they again demanded the corresponding compensation payment for hospitals. A resolution was also passed on Friday that all federal states would introduce the electronic vaccination card as soon as possible. It was also agreed that in view of the pandemic, public health services must be fundamentally modernized.

The agenda also included digitization in the medical field, health care in rural areas, the Hospital Working Hours Law and a joint solution for the reimbursement of extremely expensive drugs for particularly rare diseases.

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