The information available is “far too incomplete to be able to assess how high the number of unreported cases is in Vienna. For many other regions we just know that we don’t know anything,” he criticized.
Complexity researcher Peter Klimek, on the other hand, spoke in the “Ö1-Mittagsjournal” with reference to Omikron not of a wave, but of a “wall”. This “Pandemic 2.0” cannot be compared with the previous waves of illness: the vaccinations and survived infections have built up immunity in the population, which is why higher hospitalizations are not necessarily to be expected.
However, according to the figures so far, Omikron would spread two to three times faster. Klimek: “When the wave is so steep, you almost have to speak of a wall that is coming towards us.” This raises questions about the critical infrastructure. If the numbers go through the roof, the operation of hospitals, supermarkets or other facilities is at risk. The question that arises here is whether – before the power supply breaks down, for example – a person can be allowed to work despite being infected with corona.
The higher the wave, the sooner it is over
According to Klimek, it is positive that the higher the wave gets, the sooner it will be over. It is necessary to rethink the measures taken so far. It may be more sensible to “dive through quickly than to endanger the infrastructure by flattening”.
Over the weekend alone, dozens of planes with tourists from Great Britain landed in Salzburg and Innsbruck, where the more contagious Omikron variant is already dominant, and London has already declared a disaster. Holidaymakers have only had to show a negative PCR test since Monday. Elling estimates that around 5,000 people have already entered the country from Great Britain. “15 cases are imported” per day, which then travel directly to the ski areas, said the expert.
In Denmark, for example, every positive corona sample is sequenced within a few days, explained Elling. The team of the scientist and that of Andreas Bergthaler from the Research Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) of the Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) carry out sequencing in this country. The experts only receive samples sporadically, and these are “typically several weeks old,” criticized the researcher from the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
“We look in the rear-view mirror”
“We look in the rear-view mirror and quite a long way back while we drive full throttle ahead,” stated Elling. In addition, there are several federal states in Austria that do not carry out any virus variant pre-tests at all. Vienna is once again a pioneer in this regard. In the federal capital, all positive PCR samples are pre-tested for virus variants, reported the spokesman for the Vienna City Councilor for Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ), Mario Dujakovic. The majority of Omikron cases to date were confirmed in Vienna – 193 of the 297 records of the new variant were available in the federal capital by Sunday.
In any case, Elling hopes that the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) will have a “structured logistics system for sample sequencing” as quickly as possible. In addition, the scientists must be able to interlink the data in order to be able to assess the situation. This includes linking positive cases with age, vaccination status and information about the severity of the course.
According to AGES, several federal states have already announced – 666 days after the first positive cases in Austria – to start virus variant pre-tests. For this, however, special test kits and reagents are required and thus it is a matter of time before this will start. In any case, Elling expects that Omikron and thus also the number of new corona infections could skyrocket from the turn of the year.
Source: Nachrichten
