[ad_1]
As with avalanche warning levels, a crown traffic light in Austria should now mark districts from green to red to take action to deal with the pandemic, depending on the situation. Not everyone is in favor of this.
By Verena Fücker, ARD Studio Vienna
Health Minister Rudolf Anschober presented an almost entirely green map of Austria at the Corona traffic light presentation. Currently, only four dots are yellow: “Vienna, this is Linz, this is Graz and this is the Kufstein district.”
The Corona traffic light is intended to give the Austrian population a clear view of the current risk situation. The traffic light is based on the tried and tested avalanche alert levels: depending on the hazard, it is green, yellow, orange or red.
Traffic lights must be installed once a week, for each Austrian district. This results in several measures that have now been put forward, including Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz: “For yellow: tightening of the mask requirement in retail, for waitresses and waiters in restaurants, and stricter rules for events.”
For example, only 5,000 spectators should be allowed at sporting events instead of 10,000 as in green communities. But it is still partly questionable whether the measures will be implemented.
Yellow horrified the mayor of Linz
The mayor of Linz, Klaus Luger of the SPÖ, has already announced: “Due to this dark construction of traffic lights, we are not going to tighten any measures at this time.”
The mayor of Linz says he was horrified that his city only had a yellow rating and not green:
“Based on the fact that Linz had massive declines in the number of cases last week, that today we have exactly 59 patients with 208,000 inhabitants, that gives the impression of arbitrariness and it is also incomprehensible from the facts that Linz is yellow.”
Four factors for a color
The color that is proclaimed in the respective district depends on four factors, in addition to the number of positive tests, for example, the free capacity of the hospitals. From a doctor’s point of view, this makes sense, says social medicine specialist Michael Kunze: “It may be the case that state A is much better positioned than state B because there is a lot of capacity in the hospital.”
A commission decides the choice of color. Unlike Linz, the city of Graz, which is also yellow, wants to implement stricter corona measures. Kufstein and Vienna want to wait and see.
The mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig of the SPÖ, also misses the transparency in the choice of color: “And the question of the effects. Some of the measures associated with it are already known. But there is still no legal framework.”
The National Council has not yet voted on it. According to Health Minister Anschober, this is scheduled for the meeting in a good two weeks.
Lack: clear rules for the individual
From a social point of view, a traffic light is basically a good way to calm people down, says Barbara Prainsack, director of the Institute of Political Science at the University of Vienna. However, she also criticizes: “If now it is orange, yellow or red, it is not very clear what I have to do as a teacher, as a mother, as a father or as an older person. And if there is no clear
After all: according to the Austrian Crown Commission, the traffic light is still developing and should be improved from week to week.
