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According to reports, Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) coordinated with experts during the day, and the federal states were also involved. A return of the FFP2 mask requirement indoors is likely. A shortening of the quarantine for symptom-free sick people was also under discussion. Rauch will provide information later today, Friday evening, in a press conference.
Rauch had recently said in interviews that he wanted to evaluate how quickly such a mask requirement would have an effect. The pressure had increased on the part of the experts in the past few days. The Director General for Public Health Katharina Reich also reportedly said yesterday in the Corona Commission that the problematic situation in the hospitals had reached the top of politics and that measures could be taken in the next few days.
The current situation was also discussed in the Gecko advisory committee, which was recently simmering. Several members considered resigning because they did not want to serve as a fig leaf. According to a “Standard” report, at least the Federal Rescue Commander of the Red Cross, Gerry Foitik, actually carried out the threat. Others who were also among the dissatisfied, such as former Defense Minister Thomas Starlinger and microbiologist Andreas Bergthaler, are likely to stay, as is Herwig Ostermann from Gesundheit Österreich GmbH, for whom resignation was never seriously an option due to his position.
Stelzer “open and ready to talk”
Upper Austria’s governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP) was “open and willing to talk” about an FFP2 mask requirement when recommended by experts. “In any case, this must be regulated uniformly nationwide,” said Stelzer when asked by APA. At the same time, however, new quarantine rules should also be discussed that correspond to the current clinical picture of the omicron variant, Stelzer emphasized again.
Tyrol’s governor Günther Platter (ÖVP) ruled out going it alone when asked by APA. One supports the current regulations on the part of the federal government. “I have already emphasized several times that I will no longer support a patchwork of regulations in Austria,” emphasized Platter, adding: “People need clarity and uniform regulations – I am not to be had for a Hü-hott policy”.
Platter also referred to the mild courses despite the currently very high number of infections. In Tyrol’s hospitals, 19 people infected with Covid-19 currently need intensive medical care, and this number has been stable for weeks. “Currently, we don’t have the problems in the hospitals in the bedside, but before it – namely with the staff, because too many employees in the hospitals are in quarantine at the same time,” Platter noted.
Source: Nachrichten
