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On the test streets of Corona in the three Viennese towns Messe, Marx-Halle and Standhalle everything is ready for the mass tests of the population from Friday morning. Anyone who has their primary or secondary residence in Vienna and is registered online can take the test. The Vienna health department, the maritime workers association, the armed and rescue forces in Vienna are set up for up to 150,000 people who want to undergo rapid antigen testing every day before December 13. The procedure for visitors will take a total of just under 20 minutes, he said. For this, a unidirectional system with several exits and entrances was installed in the City Council. Guests receive an FFP2 mask upon entering. With this you can go to the “hot zone” inside the town hall.
The fact that registration is only possible online, while the city pushed for people without internet access, especially the elderly, to register by phone, caused differences to the end. Like Carinthia, Vienna uses the tool offered by the federal government for online registration. This is to avoid long lines in front of the three test stations. However, the city cannot offer any technical means to access the federal government’s online portal.
At the office of Health Minister Rudi Anschober (Greens), the “Wiener Zeitung” was told that family members could also register online, for example for older people without their own Internet access. However, it is important that the person being tested can be identified during the test. Bring your photo ID and e-card. Anschober confirmed that work was also under way on creating a multilingual hotline.
At the office of Health Councilor Peter Hacker (SPÖ), however, it makes more sense to register by phone. Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) announced this recently. The armed forces themselves are not responsible for the search, but in Vienna alone they provide 2,000 soldiers and civil servants to ensure that mass testing is carried out as smoothly as possible. At the national level there are a total of 5,400 soldiers.
It is possible to register by phone in Styria
Vienna received support from the SPÖ Pensioners Association. Its president, Peter Kostelka, repeated the request made days ago for a telephone registration; after all, registration is a prerequisite for taking part in the test. And as it became known on Thursday, a private provider is used for phone records in Styria, which makes 60 people available.
The city of Vienna expects some 800,000 residents to take part in the massive tests. In Vienna, from December 4 to 13, teachers will also be evaluated at the three test sites. In Vorarlberg and Tirol, the massive tests will also start this Friday. In both federal states, however, testing is limited to the period of December 4-6.
To make matters worse for Viennese, online registration had to be suspended for about two hours just hours after the start of Wednesday, prompting ridicule on social media. A data leak had to be fixed that made data no longer visible and people mistakenly gained access to other people’s data. However, there have already been 100,000 registrations, Health Minister Anschober said on Thursday. There he campaigned in the town hall with the hacker and interior minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), as well as with the armed forces for active participation in the tests.
Advisory staff were against mass testing
Meanwhile, it emerged that the advisory staff of the Health Ministry had spoken out against the massive corona tests. This emerges from the minutes of the meeting that have now been published. Consequently, Anschober asked the experts for their assessment on November 17. “A significant part of the advisory staff speaks out against the massive tests,” says the newspaper. The skepticism was justified by the possibility of both false negative tests and false positive results. The minister’s advisory staff would have appreciated regional or target group testing. Anschober again defended the massive tests at a press conference on Thursday. Mass tests are important because they provide a general inventory of the real situation: keyword: numbers not reported, emphasized the minister.
Antigen test collection has been suspended
The second bad news on Thursday was that the Federal Acquisition Company suspended the acquisition of Covid antigen tests and restarted it following the complaint from suppliers who had not been given the opportunity. Government buyers had signed contracts with individual suppliers without an open tender.
Ludwig expects growing numbers through massive testing
Once the Federal Administrative Court began an examination, the award was temporarily suspended and the contract was put out to tender. The Defense Ministry does not expect any impact from the massive tests, it said Thursday.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig (SPÖ), has announced that there will also be contact tracing as part of the mass testing in positive cases.
“In other parts of Austria there is a discussion about whether to suspend contact tracing at this stage. We will not do that,” he said. Due to massive testing, expect an increase in the number of new infections in Vienna. And once again, Ludwig asked for a share in federal crisis management. “Unfortunately, in Vienna we always have to find out from the media what steps are planned or just before a press conference.” (ett / apa)
