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Gerald Gartlehner is an epidemiologist and teaches at Danube University Krems. Immediately before the government announced a third shutdown on Friday, Gartlehner gave Thursday night Zib 2 an interview. “The infection figures are indeed very worrying because we are in the immediate vicinity of a lockdown. Infections will now increase again, and from the high level we are still at, the situation could soon change again because hospitals are still overwhelmed.” says Gartlehner.
In fact, there are still more than 500 corona patients in intensive care units, 800 are considered the limit of overload.
Second lock too short, open too early
Gartlehner says the lockdown, which ended Dec. 7, “may have been too short,” and there were far fewer people than the first lockdown at headquarters. “It may have reopened too soon.”
In view of the many deaths and the high number of infections among those over 75, Gartlehner says that “the lack of testing in nursing homes was a failure.”
Gartlehner sticks to his criticism of the massive evidence. They are “unsustainable”, they must be repeated over and over again, which is “not possible” at the national level. Gartlehner considers the intensive testing of certain groups to be successful or also the imposition of quarantines, from which he can then free himself.
Corona will remain a burden to us for months
Rapid tests are also useful, for example, before visiting a person at risk.
Regarding the next vaccinations, Gartlehner says: “In any case, the virus will accompany us until the fall of 2021 and will limit our lives.” It will be faster to immunize vulnerable groups. The only way to get back to normal is vaccination.
