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The state of Upper Austria is looking for “volunteer heroes” in cooperation with the Austrian team: these are people who want to help, the mass crown tests of December 11-14 drive. Those interested can contact www.teamoesterreich.at/toe/ or below www.treffpunkt-ehrenamt.at Check in. When deployed, it is insured through the Red Cross, Governor Thomas Stelzer and his deputy Christine Haberlander (both ÖVP) reported on Friday.
After tests for teachers on December 5 and 6 and for the police on December 7 and 8, about 1.4 million inhabitants of Upper Austria can be examined from December 11 to 14. Around 570 test lines will be installed, 1,700 employees per day are required for test acceptance alone, and the total demand is likely to be 3,500 people per day. Therefore, the stumbling block is the staff.
We are looking for doctors, paramedics and medical students for the acceptance of exams, but also people for administrative and stewardship activities, as well as people who are responsible for the supply and replacement of material. Volunteers who have signed up for Team Austria will be notified by SMS if help is still needed in their region. When registering, training, availability, etc. are consulted. so that the Red Cross can deploy people with precision.
The massive tests could help break the chains of infection and are “also an important step towards a reasonably family Christmas in a small family circle,” Stelzer and Haberlander said, calling on Upper Austrians to carry out the test. test. However, for the “gigantic task” to be successful, many volunteers are needed who are willing to help. Thanks for all of them now.
Preparations are also in full swing for the testing of around 38,000 Upper Austrian primary school teachers and educators on December 5 and 6: the district authorities have announced possible locations where the armed forces will examine their suitability in the coming days, Haberlander reported. The locations should be fixed early next week. For Haberlander, these tests are also “an important step in the reopening of schools.”
Criticism of the federal government
As for the costs of mass testing, in Upper Austria the federal government has an obligation. It was said that advances would be made, but that they would act in the indirect federal administration, so the federal government would have to bear the costs, which cannot yet be realistically estimated. The mayor of Linz, Klaus Luger (SPÖ), evaluated it in a similar way on Friday. He and Health Councilor Michael Raml (FPÖ) were organizationally excluded in the rain by the federal government, it was still too clear, for example, the question of additional PCR tests and contact tracing measures after a positive rapid test.
LHStv. Manfred Haimbuchner (FPÖ) joined this criticism: The federal government left the cities and municipalities “after its controversial and half-baked announcement of massive tests with the concrete planning and implementation of the same in the lurch”. Apparently, there are massive concerns about, for example, the legal basis for the deployment of the military, IT systems, or staffing levels. He would support the federal government’s actions if “the underlying strategic approach and the corresponding consequences were openly communicated,” Haimbuchner said. For the moment he thinks that mass testing is more like “a diversionary maneuver and a game of time.”
Upper Austrian AK President Johann Kalliauer fears that given the current legal situation a new test will have to be performed after a positive antigen test and that separation notices will only be issued after a second positive test. “For me, mass testing is money wasted if people who test positive don’t get a quarantine notice right away,” Kalliauer said. Employees who tested positive must be released from work immediately and with continued pay, he demanded.
