According to this, people who have been vaccinated twice fall ill with long-Covid only about half as often as unvaccinated people, regardless of the vaccine. Those who develop post-Covid symptoms despite vaccination report faster healing. “According to experts, the Covid-19 vaccination is currently the most important preventive measure with regard to long-Covid – both in terms of occurrence and progression,” said Gecko Chairman Major General Rudolf Striedinger, referring to the past few weeks significantly improved data situation. In the event of an infection, a more rapid and complete healing can be observed, particularly in those over 60 years of age who have been vaccinated.
Vaccination will remain the most important tool to protect people and to prepare for the next cold season in the coming weeks and months, appealed Gecko boss Katharina Reich. According to a recent study by the Technical University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna, the immunity level would drop from the current 60 to 65 percent to around twelve percent by October 1 if there were no further immunizations by vaccination or infection from the end of February. “This means that by October 1, 2022, around 4.3 million immune Austrians would be missing to reach the current level, which is currently sufficient for the peak of the omicron wave,” the report calculates.
Situation in hospitals tense
Without further immunizations, the level of protection against hospitalization would drop from the current level of more than 80 to 30 to 45 percent. According to the Gecko Commission, the situation in the hospitals is currently “partly tense, but not threatening”, with comparatively high staff shortages causing problems. There are reports of tiredness and exhaustion of the staff, especially in the intensive care area, there are relatively many staff departures and problems with the replacement.
With regard to testing – the Minister of Health was recently given the opportunity to deviate from the current strategy with free tests – the Gecko experts emphasize the comparatively limited significance of Omikron. Results of tests that were taken 24 hours or more ago would become less important as access control due to the faster transmission at Omikron. However, they are still “of great importance” for sensitive diagnostics for sick people or with regard to possible therapy.
Test on “standby”
According to the recommendation of the Gecko experts, however, like other measures to monitor and control the pandemic, testing should only be put on “standby”. They advocate greater digitization of systems and processes (e.g. testing, official measures, surveillance) so that possible negative developments in the pandemic can be reacted to more quickly in the future. Nevertheless, the report points out that a significantly slower decrease or increase in the number of cases cannot be ruled out due to the dominant, more easily transferable omicron subline BA.2 in Austria. In addition, there should be low-threshold access to subsidiary protection systems (own PCR tests and contact person management, rapid diagnosis, several therapy options) for particularly vulnerable population groups.
Source: Nachrichten
