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The IT system provided by the federal government should be the culprit. Obviously, this could not be put into operation in advance, it was said from the office of the city council of health in front of the “Krone”.
More details will be released at a press conference tomorrow Sunday. Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) had previously defended the fact that “mass testing” of the coronavirus in Vienna will begin on December 2. Follow the western federal states, which also start earlier, Ludwig said in the lunch diary Ö1. According to his own statements, he assumes that the federal government has already “planned” the measure.
“The fact that we do this earlier has to do with the fact that the western federal states have rightly decided to conduct the tests in such a way that people who may be in quarantine can go home before Christmas. I think it’s a logical approach. ” The media did not tell the federal government or the military when to start. Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) and the Vienna military command had been informed in advance, Ludwig said.
Vienna had registered some skepticism about the massive tests. However, Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) announced that this should take place throughout Austria. “So we prepare for it.” Vienna offered to create the framework for the tests organized by the armed forces. An additional 200 paramedics were offered, which is currently quite a challenge. “We want to support the measure of the federal government where we can,” said the mayor.
Since the Chancellor announced the tests during press time, the appropriate preparations had probably been made, Ludwig suspected. It assumes “that you don’t just think about how to implement it organizationally.” After all, all federal states were asked to participate. “I guess this is planned.”
Subsequent steps after the shutdown will likely have to be seen at the regional level, Ludwig said. Vienna is in a “good situation” because it currently has the fewest infections, according to the number of inhabitants. And he emphasized: “We tried a lot. That was our strategy from the beginning.” The situation in Vienna was always stable, even if it was presented differently before the elections.
Federal Chancellor Kurz previously praised the commitment of federal states and municipalities to mass antigen testing scheduled for December. “It is very gratifying that all federal states are participating and that they have already advanced and set appointments,” said the chancellor, convinced that massive tests could control the infection process until vaccination.
He briefly thanked the representatives of the federal entities and municipalities as well as the various voluntary organizations such as the volunteer fire department or rescue organizations that will help with the tests. A few days later, the states and municipalities had taken all the precautions with the armed forces and health authorities so that the first massive tests could begin next week, according to the chancellor. The federal capital Vienna will begin on December 2.
From comments from states and municipalities, he heard “that many will participate in the tests,” Kurz said. The tests in South Tyrol also proved this. There, with the mass test and the strong participation of the population, the decisive reproduction factor “R” was reduced from 1.4 to 0.5. Similar in Slovakia. Once again he asked for a high turnout. Because the higher it is, the sooner it is possible to identify asymptomatic corona infected people and break the chains of infection. The study of dark figures presented yesterday also showed “the importance of these tests and that it is necessary to carry out tests in large groups of the population,” argued Kurz.
The planned antigen mass tests continued to receive criticism from the opposition. SPÖ defense spokesman Robert Laimer was outraged by the high acquisition costs of the tests in this country compared to Slovakia. Laimer was particularly concerned about acquisition costs: “While the WHO, the US and also the small country Slovakia bought a test for around 4 euros, the armed forces paid just under 7 euros per test.” Extrapolated to the total of 10 million tests purchased, the additional costs are almost 30 million euros. To do this, Austrian taxpayers would have to “pay”.
FPÖ health spokesman Gerhard Kaniak described it as a “crazy health policy idea”. Kaniak criticized the error rate which he believed was too high and that too many resources were tied up or too high costs incurred. Bulk testing is “extremely inefficient” and would slow down or even prevent “really needed testing” because capabilities would be blocked.
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