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Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) also announced that the Council of Ministers would decide on an opening plan next week. However, it is already certain that schools and retailers will be the first to open, in compliance with security measures.
“The corona infection figures are falling, but they are still at such a high level that I urgently urge the population to continue to adhere to the corona measures,” Kurz appealed and only announced “very cautious and slow opening steps” after the closing.
The Chancellor described the fact that western federal states are now beginning massive testing earlier as a relief. It is also logical that federal states and urban areas need more time. At the same time, he emphasized that these first massive tests were not the end of the crisis. Full tests only make sense if they are repeated and require greater compliance with security measures. The pandemic does not end with the implementation of the first massive tests, Kurz and Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) emphasized.
“Mass testing is not a panacea, but a good opportunity to locate infections in the population and prevent further infections. We must take every opportunity to avoid further blockages or at least shorten them,” Kurz said.
Education Minister Heinz Faßmann (ÖVP) emphasized that tests for teachers are “voluntary and free”. But he advocated the widest possible participation, “because the more the teachers try themselves, the more useful they are.” But he also made clear that teachers who don’t get tested will likely have to wear masks.
The teachers’ tests are organized with the help of the Federal Army, which today ordered the test. The deployment is carried out as an assistant deployment, which has been requested by the health authorities.
The armed forces are responsible for planning, preparing, establishing and operating the test stations in cooperation with local authorities. The determination of test stations is carried out by the federal states in cooperation with health and education authorities. NBC Advocacy Center creates hygiene and safety concept for test streets. Reinforcement measures by the militiamen are possible on a voluntary basis.
The opening of the country after the closure will be “very, very cautious and cautious,” Kurz also stressed. “We certainly won’t rush anything.” If there will be regulations for Christmas and New Years Eve, as in Germany, the number of people you can meet will largely depend on the number of infections.
Holidays are a critical phase, Kurz emphasized. The Chancellor did not want to commit to when, for example, the ski areas could reopen. “We are not all clairvoyants.” Skiing is one of the many areas. You will try to decide sensibly and fairly in the first steps. “Blocking is always easier than opening”, Kurz doesn’t expect an easy process.
The government intends to decide how to proceed in the Council of Ministers next Wednesday. At least it’s clear that schools and commerce will start on December 7. Education Minister Heinz Faßmann (ÖVP) has not yet been able to say how the schools will actually start after the closure. Currently, the areas of oral and nasal protection and shift work are being discussed, but also the relocation of classes to larger premises.
The government sees mass screening and testing as an essential means of getting through the holidays and also preventing or at least shortening a third lockdown, as Kurz explained. The fact that the commission of experts of the Ministry of Health rejected the massive tests according to a report by “Standard” did not impress Kurz and the Minister of Health Rudolf Anschober (Greens) when asked. Kurz explicitly mentioned the rector of Med-Uni Vienna, Markus Müller, the vice-rector Oswald Wagner and the immunologist Ursula Wiedermann-Schmidt, who was very grateful to all the experts who accompanied the massive tests. The tests are not intended to provide false security so that one can relinquish protective measures, Kurz emphasized, but, like a lockdown, to break chains of infection. However, mass testing is a much less invasion of freedom and less economic damage than a blockade, he explained.
Anschober also said that massive tests should not be “isolated”, that they were part of a general concept. True, there was clear criticism of the tests in Slovakia in the expert advisory council, but they also discussed what could be done better. One point is the repetitions of the tests, which is what is planned. Another point is the risk of false positive or false negative results, and here too follow-up tests and “crystal clear communication” that a negative result “is not a license for careless behavior” are being planned.
While Kurz originally wanted the general population to test the weekend before Christmas to save Christmas, Vorarlberg and Tyrol are now moving forward and starting this on the first weekend of December, Salzburg also in the middle of the month. However, the Chancellor is also grateful for the above dates, because each step in December is “useful to have the safest Christmas possible”, as he said when asked. It does not depend on the specific date, but rather that as many people as possible participate and the tests are repeated.
Kurz doesn’t think the other federal states will follow suit in the West: With such a logistical challenge, it is clear that large states or urban areas need more time. And: “It would also be bad if everyone was ready immediately, because many tests would not be available at this time,” explained Kurz, because these would be delivered in sections. “It suits us very well that some are leading here and others are just following.”
In any case, on the first weekend of December, educators will be assessed throughout Austria. Education Minister Faßmann emphasized that tests for teachers are voluntary and free. However, a refusal should not be without consequences: for example, it is a “solidarity act” to wear oral and nasal protection, and it considers it “legitimate to demand this solidarity behavior” if someone does not allow themselves to take the test, Faßmann confirmed the considerations in the Ministry of Education on the obligation to wear a mask.
Kurz considers the Freedom Party’s call to boycott the massive tests before Christmas “absolutely irresponsible.” “More infections mean that people have to go to the hospital and that people have to go to intensive care and that people lose their lives.”
The vaccination strategy was decided in the Council of Ministers on Wednesday and it is well known that the first vaccinations should start in January. Although vaccination is already within reach, that does not mean that everything will be resolved in January, Kurz warned, “we still have a few tough months ahead of us.” There will be no mandatory vaccination, Anschober said, but rather an “urgent recommendation” to get vaccinated.
Infection numbers remain “dramatically” high, Anschober said. At the end of the week, he should finally see “clear consequences” of the lockdown, because “we still cannot talk about a turnaround in Austria”.
Vienna still expected to be critical of the massive tests announced before Christmas. “It cannot be that you promise massive tests in a republic of eight million people and then the core questions are not answered,” Health Councilor Peter Hacker (SPÖ) said on Wednesday on the sidelines of a government media meeting. He was also negative about skiing vacations over the Christmas holidays.
Aside from clarifying a few points, there are still no answers to the big test project “to the really important core questions,” Hacker complained. He noted that 2.9 million tests have been conducted across the country since the virus pandemic began in February. “So is the exciting question: How can you get together now in two, three or four days, say, 60 percent of eight million people, that is, five million tests? This question should be answered if you promise to do massive tests “.
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