Anschober to Corona: The most important weeks ahead

Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) took stock of this at a press conference on Thursday. But with the most important goal, the number of intensive care patients in Austrian hospitals, “the severity and intensity of the task” still exists. There are currently 585 intensive care beds occupied, in the next “four major weeks of the pandemic” it should be less than 300.

Pixabay

On the fourth day after the crown’s strict measures were relaxed in Austria, the number of new infections fell further from 2,932 to 2,686 in 24 hours. A slight decrease …

From January it could then “gradually improve,” the minister said, referring to the imminent start of vaccinations against Corona. With a current replay number of 0.82, well below critical, an additional goal was achieved, according to Anschober: “The seven-day incidence is 229, which has been halved,” but is clearly above value von Germany: “We need a 1 in advance”, so the minister defined another goal.

Focus on the seven-day incidence

The risk that these figures “skyrocket again” still exists, Anschober warned: such a trend reversal should be avoided, in which case the government would intervene immediately. The outright catastrophe would have been a difficult triage, said Klaus Markstaller, president of the Austrian Society of Anesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine (ÖGARI): “We were afraid that such a situation could also arise in Austria”, is the case currently with decreasing numbers worst cases. According to Markstaller, these are patients for whom the situation does not improve even after one or two weeks of intensive treatment.

Younger patients in the hospital

At the Vienna General Hospital (AKH), ​​these are younger patients: with an average age of 55 years, there are not only more than 70 years, but also patients between 20 and 30 years: “People who do not have diseases significant previous “, described the ÖGARI. -President of your location.

Heavily burdened healthcare workers

This wave will pass, but healthcare workers are now really overburdened, and this will continue to be so, for example due to postponed operations that need to be rescheduled; it is a burden that will continue for weeks and months. “We have several vaccines in the offing, and that will be the solution,” believes Markstaller. Until then, the situation at the Kepler University Hospital pulmonary clinic in Linz will remain tense, board member Bernd Lamprecht reported via video link: Employees continued to push their limits, “this state cannot be sustained for many months, “Lamprecht warned. This situation can only be saved if the number of infections remains moderate. Each individual can contribute personally to this, in addition to maintaining distance, also through rapid tests, on the advice of the doctor, to participate in the massive tests underway.

Corona-positive prognosis

Another third wave could not cope with, predicted Herwig Ostermann, managing director of Health Austria (GÖG), “apart from the workload in terms of personnel and capabilities.” This would mean “competition” not only with conventional patients, but also with those of the second wave. There are countries that have increased their numbers again after the second wave has stopped: Ostermann called Slovakia, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Land Salzburg / Franz Neumayr

The state of Salzburg tests the population for the corona virus from Friday to Sunday. Now the list with all test locations has been published.

However, his forecast for the next few days is positive for Austria: until shortly before Christmas, on December 22, he assumes that the number of intensive care patients will be less than 400, with a range of 300 to 450. The forecast is is developing in which new daily infections are reduced to 1,600 to 1,700 cases.

For next week, the Health Minister announced new “framework conditions for the holidays”, which would be fixed and anchored by ordinance. In any case, the situation in Austria cannot be compared with that of Germany, which wants to protect itself with a blockade.

(Those: APA)