So far, Vienna, for example, had also included the post-Covid or long-Covid patients on the wards who were no longer infectious. In the future, only numbers of infectious people who are in normal wards will be reported in the so-called capacity survey tool (KET).
Only infectious cases recorded
The Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) reports daily – except for the weekend – the number of patients who are in hospital with or because of Corona. “In order to continue to ensure the best possible uniformity of the counting method in the capacity survey of the federal states and to map the dynamic pandemic development as precisely as possible, also from a technical point of view, from now on only infectious beds will be reported in normal care wards occupied with Covid 19 cases Cases recorded,” said the Ministry of Health when asked. For the intensive care units, on the other hand, the definition remains unchanged, i.e. infectious as well as no longer infectious cases are counted and reported as Covid-19 cases.
The now adjusted definition applies to all federal states and has been in use since Wednesday. This capacity survey tool is primarily used for forecasting and system risk assessment. “The definitions have been made more precise as part of the pandemic due to medical developments,” the Ministry of Health argued the change after two and a half years of the pandemic.
Around 50 percent fewer reports
For Vienna, where the traffic light commission has often switched to red, this means that around 50 percent of hospital patients will no longer be registered in the future. Because according to the daily broadcast, which the city sends out every day, around 471 people were in hospital treatment for or with Covid-19 in Vienna on Friday. 105 positives were in a normal ward because of the main diagnosis corona, 108 positives because of other diseases. 231 people occupied the beds because of Post Covid.
The distribution was similar in the intensive care unit: On Friday, twelve infected people received intensive care in Covid wards, 15 people were intensive care patients in post Covid wards. This means that although these patients are no longer contagious, they are seriously ill after an infection. In any case, Vienna will continue to publish all figures, even if only those actively infected are reported, according to the office of City Councilor for Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ).
Around 200 long Covid symptoms
Long Covid or Post Covid is the secondary disease after a Covid 19 infection. If symptoms persist for more than twelve weeks after an acute illness or if new ones appear, then one speaks of Long Covid. The symptoms are diverse and vary in severity, the World Health Organization lists around 200 long-Covid symptoms. According to an analysis by the WHO, at least 17 million people in Europe were affected by long-Covid symptoms in the first two years of the pandemic.
Source: Nachrichten
