Friday was the fifth day in Upper Austria on which the seven-day incidence did not change at a good 130. For the corona specialist at Linz’s Kepler University Hospital, Bernd Lamprecht, a possible indication that “perhaps the bottom has already been reached” for this summer and the number of infections is going up again. In addition, immunity in the population is “continuously decreasing”.
Two “serious benchmarks”
On Friday, the country therefore informed how to prepare for the fall. Governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP) named two “serious yardsticks” that apply to the preparations: the utilization of hospital capacity to ensure the health of Upper Austrians and the critical infrastructure that must be ensured. In order to achieve this, vaccination is of central importance, according to the LH in the background discussion. Even if, according to the crisis management team, only between 2,500 and 4,000 per week are currently being carried out in Upper Austria, the nationwide vaccination offer remains in place.
Specifically, there are 18 vaccination centers in the country, and the range of services offered by resident doctors is to be expanded. This means that 70,000 to 75,000 stitches per week are possible, added LH deputy Christine Haberlander (ÖVP), who is responsible for health. The 469 new employees who were hired to support the state crisis management team and for contact tracing remain on hold so that a new wave can be dealt with quickly in the fall.
BA.5 cases likely to increase significantly?
For Lamprecht there is no question that this wave or even “waves” will come or come. The mutations are becoming more and more easily transmissible, the big unknown is whether they will lead to serious clinical courses. The lung specialist expects that the cases of infections with the omicron subvariant BA.5, the distribution of which in Upper Austria is currently around ten percent, will increase significantly.
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However, due to the reduced test offer, it is difficult to provide more precise information, which also applies to the immunity rate. Lamprecht therefore did not want to name a serious number. However, he assumes that vaccination will continue to protect against serious diseases. An infection or a course of the disease with mild symptoms is probably not “preventable”.
Wastewater screening will be strengthened
In order to be able to better assess the epidemiological situation, the country will also be stepping up wastewater screening from July 1st. This enables trends to be identified at an early stage with regard to the number of cases and emerging virus variants. So far, such evaluations have been carried out by the Ministry of Education at 16 sewage treatment plants with one or more schools in their catchment area.
Upper Austria will continue to carry out those evaluations on its own and add ten more sewage treatment plants. The “seamless transition to the expiring school site monitoring” has thus been achieved, samples are taken twice a week in 26 plants, said environmental councilor Stefan Kaineder (Greens) in a broadcast. The continuation of the wastewater screening was worked out together with his department.
Source: Nachrichten
