Over the weekend, Gecko, the government’s Corona expert panel, advised against relaxing the quarantine rules. Specifically, it was about the requirement that those who had been vaccinated three times should be able to test themselves after three days of quarantine. This was primarily collected from business circles.
The situation remains volatile, said Gecko chairwoman Katharina Raich. “We have to keep in mind that the peak of the omicron wave has not yet been reached,” says Raich.
The gecko experts assume that infected people are almost certainly still positive after three days. So one cannot expect a major impact on the protection of critical infrastructure. However, shortening the test intervals would mean a lot more work for the health authorities, and the scarce PCR test capacities would be further strained.
Despite this gecko assessment, Upper Austria’s health officer LH-Stv. Christine Haberlander (VP) from the federal government that the quarantine rules for fully vaccinated people will be reconsidered in the foreseeable future – especially if it is confirmed that the omicron variant is milder and the burden on the hospitals remains under control.
“Omicron is rewriting the rules. You should consider shortening the quarantine for vaccinated people,” says Haberlander. One could consider shortening the quarantine from ten to five days if the infected are people who have already had the third sting. How far the simplifications could go must be discussed with experts on the basis of the knowledge about the Omicron variant.
Contact tracing restricted
However, the high daily number of cases in the course of the Omicron wave in Upper Austria is already having an effect: from now on, so-called contact tracing, i.e. determining contact persons of infected people, will be radically restricted. You can no longer contain the wave with this means, the daily number of cases is too high, says Haberlander. This has also been confirmed by experts. The district authorities are therefore instructed to focus primarily on those who have tested positive from now on. In addition to the isolation notice, they receive a notification by SMS and a link to an online form, the data from which then flows into the EPM system (Epidemiological Monitor). Only if SMS contact is not possible with the infected person is the data requested by telephone. This should relieve the authorities.
This procedure has an impact primarily on so-called “K1 contact persons”. In principle, quarantine notices should no longer be issued for these – those who have tested positive are only asked to inform their contact persons. K1 contact persons should call 1450 if they have symptoms.
The specifications for the district authorities also make it clear that free testing in Upper Austria is still possible.
Sunday high
Yesterday, the Ministry of the Interior and Health recorded 22,453 cases of new infections, the highest nationwide Sunday value since the pandemic began.
As of yesterday, 1,129 patients were treated for Covid-19 in hospitals nationwide, 192 of them in an intensive care unit (17 in Upper Austria). While the number of intensive care patients decreased by 20 in the past week, there was an increase in the normal wards. On Sunday, a total of 246 more people had to be treated in hospitals than a week ago.
The gap between vaccinated and unvaccinated people in new infections is considerable: the seven-day incidence in unvaccinated people in Upper Austria is around 3,400, in vaccinated around 800.
Source: Nachrichten
