As reported, Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) has announced that quarantine regulations for corona-infected staff will be relaxed, at least in hospitals and nursing homes. Exactly what will be changed is still being discussed. There is no recommendation from the Gecko Commission in this regard. Members gave mixed views on the issue of the reduced seclusion at their Friday session, according to the Executive Report released on Saturday.
What is changing with the Corona measures:
Agreement on FFP2 mask requirement
There was agreement in the national crisis coordination, however, regarding the nationwide return to the FFP2 mask requirement indoors, which Rauch had already announced on Friday evening for the middle of next week. Such a system can “significantly reduce” the number of infections, the experts noted. “The benefit of masks indoors is very well documented by evidence. Solid scientific studies show a significant reduction in the probability of infection and the effective number of reproductions by wearing masks,” emphasized Gecko Chairwoman Katharina Reich the individual and societal benefit.
Are numbers increasing due to the reduction in quarantine?
Opinions in the Omicron Gecko working group differed on the question put to them by the government of the impact of reduced confinement on the staffing situation in hospitals. Individual members took the position that the incidence of infection could continue to increase through general shortening of the secretion (currently one can only test oneself free after five days). This means that a lower number of health workers could be offset by a higher number of hospital admissions. The experts noted that the quarantine could facilitate a temporary recommendation to work from home.
Video: In the Upper Austrian hospitals, 9.3 percent of the staff are currently absent due to illness. According to Dr. Bernd Lamprecht, head of the clinic for pulmonary medicine at the Kepler University Hospital, therefore not possible. The lung specialist welcomes the forthcoming tightening of the corona measures with the return to the FFP2 mask requirement:
Other Gecko members shared the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) view. According to this agency of the US Department of Health, reducing the quarantine duration in settings threatened by the staffing situation would be justifiable. The CDC has shortened the recommended time for isolating infected people given the current state of knowledge about the omicron variant.
BA.2 spreads faster
Regarding the question of a major change in the Corona measures regime, the Commission has found that no comparable country is planning such a change. The situation in Denmark, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the Czech Republic was examined in particular, where the proportion of BA.2 cases is as high as in Austria. In Germany, the spread of this variant is being observed in connection with the planned opening steps, explained co-chairman Rudolf Striedinger.
As the WHO has also stated, the BA.2 variant has a growth advantage over the other omicron subtypes, but at the same time, according to the WHO, the number of cases has declined worldwide. The Gecko Report refers to new findings from Great Britain, according to which BA.2 grows 80 percent faster than BA.1. This means that the effective number of reproductions of BA.2 should be 30 to 40 percent higher.
More frequent re-infections
In addition, data from the UK showed that omicrons were more likely to be reinfected. “This suggests that prior infection with Delta does not provide good protection against omicron,” Gecko noted. Reinfections with BA.2 after BA.1 disease have also been documented, but the risk of reinfection seems low, at least for a limited period of time.
The Commission refers specifically to the situation in Hong Kong. There, with a similar number of inhabitants as in Austria, 4,000 people have already died during the current omicron wave. These were mostly older people. It was also noted that omicron is not mild in unvaccinated elderly people. With case numbers of 50,000 per day, measures were introduced in Hong Kong, and the number of infections is now falling again, Gecko noted.
Measures are tightened
Health Minister Rauch announced yesterday – with more than 50,000 new infections for the third time – the return of the FFP2 mask requirement and a change in the quarantine rules, at least for health workers. As an argument, he put forward the overloading of the staff in view of the high number of patients in the health facilities.
The minister justified the fact that some of the easing announced only two weeks ago was being withdrawn by saying that the forecasts had worsened since the easing package was decided. Infection numbers of over 50,000 per day are also expected in the next two weeks.
Rauch also announced that he had apologized to the Gecko experts “for some of the inconsistencies and some of the resentment that has arisen there over time”. Federal Red Cross rescue commander Gerry Foitik has resigned from the commission.
Regretting Foitik’s withdrawal
The two chairmen, Reich and Striedinger, “regretfully acknowledge Foitik’s resignation and would like to thank him for his valuable work over the past few months,” it said on Saturday. Foitik justified his departure on Friday not only with the “occasional” impression that Gecko was instrumentalized by politics. For him, it was also crucial that in his Red Cross function he was oriented towards empathy and solidarity with the weakest – but at the moment “it is often only acknowledged with a shrug” that around 200 people die of Corona every week. Foitik’s statement in the ZiB2:
Source: Nachrichten
