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Health Minister Rudolf Anschober takes stock of the Corona year today and offers an insight into what to expect in the coming year.
Of Claudia gigler | 10:27 am, December 29, 2020
Annual review and prospects for 2021: that is the title of the press conference of the balance sheet of the Minister of Health. It was a completely different year than Rudolf anschober (Greens) were waiting for him. A year in which one crisis scenario chased the other and threw away everything Anschober had planned for health and social foresight.
The day before, Anschober had presented the vaccination campaign and had given her hope. I hope that from May a normal life will be possible again and that we will not have to fear the coming winter.
“The year was very difficult, for all of us, in Austria, in Europe and beyond,” Anschober began. “It was a year of changes, concerns, resignations, fears, but also cohesion and solidarity, that made us strong.” This year could not have been more challenging for a minister of health and social affairs.
The Ministry of Health is the control center to combat the pandemic, employees have achieved a huge amount in the year that ends:
- 149 regulations, most of them on Covid-19. “Yes, 3 to 4 ended up before the Constitutional Court, one really didn’t work out, but it was 149!”
- 12 federal laws and countless edicts
- 676 written questions that were answered, most of them with 10-15 individual questions
- 132,434 inquiries attended by the home’s citizen service office, 49,000 of them with specific phone calls
The objectives for the next weeks:
- the Number of new infections with the hard lock again increased considerably to reduce
- the Contact person management digitize comprehensively and now, in fewer times, also to speed up
- the Mouth and nose protection expand: In the workplace, it is already mandatory in the regulation for prescription outdoor will be worked
- the Text to intensify and thus remove patients from the cycle of infection without symptoms
- the Covid vaccination to be deployed and expanded with it from April. A second vaccine is about to be approved, “January 6 would be a good date.” The AstraZeneca vaccine is expected in February.
Anchober has the following priorities for the 2021 work year:
- Fight more against the pandemic
- Intensification of cooperation with the EU, “the EU will emerge stronger from the crisis”: there are many cooperation projects in the social and health sectors, as well as in the protection of animals and consumers; Anschober cited class actions as an example
- Continuation of organizational reform in the ministry
- Expansion of psychosocial care
- Modification of the maternal and child passport
- Implement the electronic vaccination registry within the first three months of the year, much faster than planned
The Federal Ministry of Finance also took stock of the Corona hotline, which was created in April 2020 to advise and support national companies. More than 150,000 inquiries by email and telephone have been registered. 99 percent of the cases could have been resolved with the initial contact. Average wait time for callers is just 30 seconds.
Questions would be answered in an average of two minutes, and most calls currently relate to income replacement and fixed cost subsidy. At the beginning of the crisis, questions were asked mainly about the emergency fund, then about aid loans and guarantees, as well as about short-time work.
The direct line (Tel .: 050 233 770) is available Monday through Thursday from 7.30 am to 3.30 pm and on Fridays from 7.30 am to 12.00 pm. In addition, written inquiries can be made using the contact form on the BMF website. or to the email address [email protected].
