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The federal capital wants to be the first region of Austria to be orange instead of red at the Corona traffic light. How Vienna can succeed.
For weeks, specifically since November 5, 2020, the Corona traffic light has shown red for all of Austria. This means: on the one hand, the incidence of 7 days, that is, the number of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants, is too high, on the other hand, both the risk of spread (the risk to public health of the spread of COVID-19) as the systemic risk increases (the risk of overloading the healthcare system with COVID-19 patients) is rated as very high.
Vienna now has the ambition to be the first region in Austria to have at least an orange rating. This still means a high cumulative incidence of 7 days relative to population size and a low proportion of cases with a clear source, but at least no more uncontrolled outbreaks in corona groups. According to insiders, the city government hopes for “the best chances” of being upgraded back to orange, they say. “Today”. To this end, it is based on extensive population testing.
“We ask all Viennese to make use of these free trial dates before going back to work on Monday.”
The plan: the more tests that are done, the more the virus can be controlled. And indeed, the federal capital is seeing a huge flood of free corona tests. On December 23 and 24 alone, 30,824 Viennese underwent rapid antigen testing at the Austria Center (drive-in and walk-in) or on the test lane near the Ernst Happel stadium. Up to and including January 7, 2021, 105,590 Viennese have already booked an appointment.
To keep the number of tests high, the city recommends that all citizens get tested, regardless of whether they were away or at home during the holidays. For example, from December 25 to next Sunday, 38,403 trial dates are free and can be reserved at any time. “We ask all Viennese to make use of these free trial dates before going back to work on Monday,” the city of Vienna said. All information about the Vienna test offers is available at a glance at coronavirus.wien.gv.at.
