According to raw data from the Epidemiological Reporting System (EMS), 28,175 new infections were reported at 8 a.m. – but this value has not been corrected for any errors. What is certain is that according to the corona dashboard of the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), all federal states are now over 1,000 in terms of the seven-day incidence (new infections in the past seven days per 100,000 inhabitants, note). The incidence is highest in Tyrol (2,606.4), followed by Salzburg (2,487.9) and Vienna (2,218.9), lowest in Styria (1,023.3) and Burgenland (1,064.2). Austria as a whole is 1,674.0 (as of Friday, 2:00 p.m.).
Significant increase in patients on the normal ward
These numbers clearly show how the omicron variant of the coronavirus has caused the numbers to skyrocket. Three weeks earlier, when omicron gradually supplanted the delta variant and began to dominate, the seven-day incidence across Austria was 224.3. The seven-day incidence has since increased by 646 percent.
This is also increasingly reflected in the hospital numbers – although not in the intensive care units, where, according to AGES, the number of Covid patients has fallen by half since Christmas and has recently stabilized at around 200. In the normal wards, however, significantly more patients with Covid-19 have recently been recorded. According to the AGES data, 904 less severe inpatients with Covid were last admitted – an increase of more than 200 within a week.
Officially secured data from the ministries was last available on Wednesday – with 27,677 confirmed new infections, the previous record value in the pandemic was reached at that time. The infection rate has probably been at a similarly high level since then, and the AGES dashboard already showed more than 29,000 on Thursday. According to the Ministry of Health, the EMS itself is fully functional, all laboratory reports and retrievals can take place without restrictions. The revision is currently not possible smoothly – not least because of the high number of cases – which is why there are more delays or failures in the publication of the adjusted data. A solution and acceleration of the processes are being worked on at full speed, which “will take the next few days”, it said on Friday evening with regard to the data problems. On average over the last seven days, the number of infections reported to the EMS was a good 900 cases higher than reported by the crisis management team. The strongest deviation was on Wednesday, when the EMS morning report contained 31,070 new infections, in the adjusted numbers it was 27,677.
No “booster” for vaccination numbers
Unfortunately, there is no “booster” for vaccination numbers. Although the National Council decided to make vaccination mandatory and this will come into force in just a few weeks, Friday was the weakest vaccination Friday of the year so far. 44,310 people have been immunized against Covid-19, of which 31,620 were third-party bites, according to the Ministry of Health’s vaccination dashboard. The first and second tricks were limited with 5,191 and 7,499 respectively. For comparison: on the two previous Fridays, over 65,000 (January 7) and over 67,000 (January 14) stitches were used to protect against a severe course of the disease in the event of an infection with SARS-CoV-2.
Around 17.32 million vaccinations have been administered since vaccines became available in Austria, of which around 4.24 million were third-party vaccinations. 6,439,678 people currently have an active vaccination certificate, accounting for 72.09 percent of the total population. The vaccination rate is highest in Burgenland (77.7 percent), lowest in Upper Austria (67.7 percent). Lower Austria (73.9 percent), Styria (72.1 percent), Vienna (71.0 percent) and Tyrol (70.8 percent) are now also well over 70 percent.
Source: Nachrichten
