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“This is completely unacceptable. The amounts established in the contract must be maintained,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.
The head of the ministry, Rudolf Anschober, assured him that Vienna would “fight” for every promised dose of vaccine and that the first phase of the vaccination plan, the immunization of the elderly and health workers, was not in danger. With 1.2 million vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, they can make sure of that.
In two nursing homes in Austria, Styria and Carinthia, residents and workers have already received the first coronavirus vaccine, but the other provinces will soon be vaccinated with the first round. The participation rate for the elderly is 70 to 80 percent, while about 60 percent of medical personnel have been vaccinated.
“Despite all the transport difficulties, the vaccination of the most vulnerable is progressing. The elderly have priority, we will continue this and we will not be discouraged,” the Austrian press quotes Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Thomas Szekeres, president of the Medical Chamber, harshly criticized the European Union’s vaccine procurement practices on public service television ORF2 on Sunday. As he said, the union should have ordered many more vaccines to start, as Israel did. He mentioned that if it is confirmed during the authorization that the AstraZeneca vaccine is not suitable for all ages, this could disrupt the vaccination plan, because then, contrary to the plan, the youngest would have to be vaccinated first. In his opinion, it would be important to vaccinate all GPs as well, but unfortunately it all depends on the amounts received.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on January 12 that it had received an application for authorization for a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. The EMA then announced that a decision would be made on January 29.
Meanwhile, Austria’s Interior Minister Karl Nehammer has vowed to take tougher action against protesters who fail to comply with the epidemic control measures on public radio Ö1. He mentioned, among other things, that in the future a fine of up to € 500 could be imposed on protesters who do not wear a mask or do not comply with the mandatory protection distance, which is already two meters in Austria. The minister also raised the issue of limiting the number of protests.
The spread of the British virus mutation is also of serious concern in Austria. Seven more cases were identified in Tyrol and a total of 539 suspected cases of the more aggressive British variant were investigated in Vienna, 66 of which tested positive, representing 12% of all positive tests in the last week.
In Austria, 1202 people have recently been diagnosed with the virus in the last 24 hours and 404,714 cases have been recorded since the outbreak began. The number of hospital patients with coronavirus disease is 1,817 and the number of people who need intensive care is 320. Of the complications of the disease caused by the infection, 29 died last day, bringing the death toll to 7,418.
Cover image: Getty Images
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