Wels & Wels-Land: massless trials

The influx of visitors to the massive Covid tests in Wels and Wels-Land was limited.

WELS, WELS-LAND. The corona mass tests were carried out in Upper Austria from December 11 to 14. The organization and cooperation of the blue light organizations worked perfectly. However, fewer people were tested than expected in advance. 8,645 citizens were tested in Wels, corresponding to around 13.5 percent of the population of Wels. The test was positive in 31 people. A total of 114 municipal employees, 64 members of the Wels fire brigade, as well as numerous army employees and members of the Red Cross were on duty during the four days of testing.

“I would like to thank all the employees and the emergency services for the good handling of the test. The city has shown great cohesion. At the same time, however, I caution against considering mass events as an Olympic discipline and comparing the number of participants. It is not about competition, but about the health of our populations. Regardless of whether mass testing is useful or not, in any case it is necessary for the federal government to bear all the costs of testing. Due to the massive tests, the city should not be left with costs of hundreds of thousands of euros ”, said the mayor of Wels, Andreas Rabl (FPÖ). The Health Councilor, Deputy Mayor Silvia Huber (SPÖ), continues: “The comments of the population about the implementation of the mass tests were extremely positive. Many thanks to the City of Wels employees, the Red Cross, the military, as well as the volunteer fire department and everyone else involved for the exemplary organization and implementation.

Cost in catfish
The city of Wels incurs costs of 117,000 euros for the rental of the hall at the fairgrounds. All other costs are borne by the federal government or the state of Upper Austria in accordance with the Covid 19 special purpose subsidy law. The cost of the shuttle buses is around 15,000 euros. However, the offer of the free buses was hardly used: a total of less than 100 passengers drove from Kaiser-Josef-Platz to the exhibition center and vice versa.

In the fair town, it was mainly the elderly who were evaluated. The age distribution looks like this:

• 6 to 19 years: 5.42 percent
• 20 to 29 years: 9.65 percent
• 30 to 39 years: 10.81 percent
• 40 to 49 years: 10.87 percent
• 50 to 59 years: 18.94 percent
• 60 to 69 years: 20.83 percent
• 70 to 79 years: 17.44 percent
• 80 to 89 years: 5.66 percent
• Over 90 years: 0.39 percent

Just some “positives”

A similar situation is emerging in Wels-Land: the implementation went well, but the masses also stayed away here. A total of 14,396 people were tested in Wels-Land, with 53 people testing positive. The blue light organizations ensured a regular process: “Around 120 firefighters from the Wels-Land district were deployed to the eight test sites,” says Oliver Deutsch on behalf of the Wels-Land fire brigades. The positive test rate is equally low in both districts – only 0.37 percent of those tested tested positive.