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The box was presented at the town hall
© WHAT
A small box is the next expansion of the Vienna strategy against Corona. The content is a PCR gargle test, which in the future will also provide rapid and free virus detection from home. Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) invited the city council on Friday to present the “proven test strategy”. According to Health Councilor Peter Hacker, the box closes the “gap” with existing strategies and will be widely implemented in March.
A test costs around 8.50 euros, the companies involved do not receive money, if it is used in a generalized way it will cost around 5.00 euros. However, for the testers themselves, everything will be available for free. The user can register with the application and ID, take the test in front of the camera and put the sample in the box and deliver it to the workplace or take it to a branch of Bipa, initially the logistics partner. And everything also works quickly: at least in the test, the two results, a certificate with a photo and a laboratory result, arrived shortly before midnight, after the gargle test had been previously presented at 9:00. am You must wait a maximum of 24 hours after the sample has arrived at the laboratory.
The wide deployment is then already the second line, according to Hacker, companies can already register now. The “grouping method” is the central element, Hacker said. With this high number of tests can be achieved by analyzing numerous samples from individual people at the same time. According to the SPÖ Councilor for Health, this is also possible thanks to the low rate of positivity. Hacker’s office said that since late December it has been below the critical rate of five percent for those who tested positive, recommended by the WHO.
The project, which has now been launched together with the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, had already been tested for two weeks with 14,000 participants, Ludwig explained on the first day of the year when the Corona traffic light in Vienna shows orange instead of red. For the mayor a “satisfaction and result of intense work”, but “it is still a snapshot.” With the box that chirps under the slogan “Everything!” is announced, this work can also be continued regarding new manifestations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus: “I am also interested in PCR testing at this time because mutation testing can be done here. This development is currently being monitored the most important tool, “Hacker said.
The president of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, Walter Ruck, explained the need to avoid a new closure, because the economic area of Vienna had lost 2.1 billion euros in the last six weeks. With the test, which can be completed in two minutes using a smartphone or computer, the turquoise box will soon be the entrance test for service providers such as hairdressers. The Rewe Group and its Bipa branches are initially distribution and logistics partners. A full implementation provides security.
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