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Corona hotspot Ischgl: Iceland emails show massive omissions
The Tyrolean authorities already knew on March 5 in which hotels infected tourists from Iceland were staying. However, almost no contact person was tested and the bars remained open for more days.
View of the Tyrolean town of Ischgl, as hundreds of guests from Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden were infected with the crown virus. Image: EPA / EPA
Could the Tyrolean authorities have reacted earlier to the Corona access point in Ischgl? Did you have enough information to recognize the urgency in due course? Icelandic emails seem to be able to answer “yes” twice to these questions. According to the letters available on profil.at, it appears that the Icelandic authorities have already informed Tirol that the new arrivals from Ischgl had tested positive on the night of March 5.
Another email reached the Tyrolean authorities in the course of the same day, in which there are now 14 cases. In addition, five hotels where the infected resided are listed. The email shows that some infected tourists have already returned to Iceland on February 29. As of March 5, the Tyrolean authorities knew that the virus had been in circulation in Ischgl since the end of February.
The second email from March 5: Tyrolean authorities knew that the virus had been in circulation in Ischgl since the end of February and in which hotels the infected Icelanders were staying. source: profil.at
Why not all employees and guests were immediately evaluated at the affected hotels? In a statement, the state of Tirol replied that the names of the infected Icelanders were still waiting to be able to use this information to identify contact persons in the hotels in question.
“Only one of the people surveyed had mild flu-like symptoms,” wrote the State of Tyrol. At the time, it was already known that asymptomatic people can also be contagious. According to profil.at, the authorities did not answer the question of how many people were subsequently tested and quarantined.
According to one of the five hotels, only one employee was evaluated, and therefore no other hotel guests.
>> Corona Virus: all the news live
Another key question is why Ischgl reacted much slower than Innsbruck, for example. In late February, a receptionist at the Hotel Europa had tested positive. The Innsbruck authorities evaluated all 60 contact persons of the infected on the same day. Data subjects had to be quarantined.
Corona virus: the situation worldwide:
Benefit before health?
The ski community in the Paznaun Valley has not lacked any negative international press in recent weeks and months: Ischgl has been described as “ground zero”, the German mirror accuses Ischgl of “greed and failure”: state policy Tyrolean and the tourism industry have been closed too long. I waited for the ski season. “Were there gains before health here?”
According to profil.at, an immediate stop in the high season could not have been easy for the state government. Because: “In Tirol, every third of the euro is generated in tourism, a quarter of all jobs depend on industry.” In 2019, the sector generated 8,400 million euros. With 1.4 million overnight stays, Ischgl obtained second place last year.
Après-ski companies like the now famous Kitzloch earn up to € 100,000 in sales on peak days. It was agreed with authorities that the bar would remain open for two nights after the first infected employee was known on March 7: “From a medical point of view, transmission of the coronavirus to bar guests is quite unlikely,” he said. The 8th of March. State Directorate of Medicine. The bar was only disinfected.
It was only on March 9, when test results from 16 quarantined employees and contact persons were positive, that the Landeck district government immediately ordered the Kitzloch closed.
Out of chaos after shutdown
After the quarantine was imposed on all of Ischgl on March 13, the masses of tourists began their journey home. Many of them have taken the virus to their home countries unconsciously. Why have tourists not been evaluated in advance and isolated for two weeks? Some suspect financial interests, as the hotel industry would have had to pay 14 days for the approximately 7,000 guests.
After the blockade was imposed, around 7000 guests had to leave Ischgl and start their journey home. Image: APA / APA
According to local police, around 80 tourists left the Paznaun Valley, even though they were only able to start their flight from Innsbruck the next day. These inadvertent hotel layovers in the state capital caused more problems in the industry. “I suppose they were afraid that they couldn’t go out any other way. According to the plan, they should only have left the Paznaun Valley on March 14, ”Elmar Rizzoli of the Innsbruck Magistrate told profil.at. It is very possible that the background and omissions of “Ground Zero” will have to be clarified in court. (bye)
More about the corona virus in Ischgl:
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