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HERBERT NEUBAUER
Mass corona tests in Austria are received with great interest. At the beginning of Friday, there were longer lines in front of the test stations in Vienna and Innsbruck, according to reporters from ORF and broadcaster Oe24. In Austria’s capital, citizens can take the test in three locations until December 13. The capacity in Vienna is up to 150,000 tests per day. The government expects several million Austrians to be tested in the next few weeks. The objective is to discover the infected free of symptoms in particular, to break the chains of infection.
Due to the nearly three-week lockdown, which will be lifted again next Monday, at least as far as trade is concerned, the high number of infections in Austria has recently decreased significantly. However, the government formed by the conservative ÖVP and the Greens is taking a more cautious opening course. This also includes travel restrictions during Christmas and New Years. Anyone entering from a risk zone, including Switzerland, must be quarantined for ten days. This can be terminated after the fifth day at least with a negative PCR test.
Austria is based in Slovakia
In the case of mass testing, Austria also draws on experiences from neighboring Slovakia. Slovakia held massive crown tests across the country on All Saints’ Day weekend (October 31 and November 1). Participation was formally voluntary, but anyone who didn’t have a negative test couldn’t even go to work for two weeks. Thus, in the first of several rounds of testing alone, 3.6 million of the 5.5 million inhabitants underwent rapid antigen testing.
In view of the cost of millions of tests in Slovakia, there was no more capacity to follow up the contacts of those who tested positive. Also, despite knowing that rapid antigen tests were less reliable, there were no control tests if someone tested positive.
Meanwhile, Slovakia is gradually moving away from its strategy of mass crown testing at the national level. Massive nationwide corona tests planned again for the first weekend of December have been postponed indefinitely.
Massive tests also in South Tyrol
Another example of massive testing is the South Tyrol region in northern Italy. After a corona mass test that lasted several days, a positive balance was extracted in the second half of November. In the small province of the Alps, more than 350,000 citizens underwent a free smear test. There were queues at the stations for rapid antigen testing. The goal, which is important for success, was achieved with precision, even though it was voluntary. About 3,600 participants (about 1 percent) received a corona positive result at the end. He has been ordered to quarantine himself. (SDA)
