Just as Corona occurs in waves, so does the work for the Red Cross teams that are deployed across the country. Philipp Matthey can also sing a song about that. Together with Martina Huemer, he coordinates the Covid team in the Urfahr area, i.e. he assigns the RK employees for the PCR tests and the vaccination offers. The central point of the official PCR tests in UU is the drive-in in Engerwitzdorf. In addition, there is the vaccination road in Walding.
In addition, there are mobile PCR test teams and teams involved in vaccination campaigns in the communities. “There was a lot going on in November and December. At the drive-in, up to 300 tests were taken in one day, but also some spontaneous large-scale acceptances in retirement homes or at the Diakoniewerk, for example,” says Matthey. At times like this, it sometimes happens that two mobile teams are on the road and two test streets are open. “The level of commitment shown by my colleagues is unbelievable,” says the enthusiastic Red Cross worker. “If, for example, the order for a spontaneous large-scale purchase comes in and we see that the mobile team cannot do it due to the order situation, we start a broadcast and within an hour we have another team together to take over this assignment. That’s it great,” he says.
Due to the always high safety and hygiene measures anyway, there are hardly any corona-related failures. All Covid-Team employees are vaccinated and voluntarily test themselves regularly.
Calm before the hurricane
At the turn of the year, the employees then experienced a rather quiet time, knowing full well that this would be the calm before the storm. “But we are currently experiencing a hurricane,” says Matthey. Although the limited tracking of contacts and the system of throat tests are helping, the resulting test acceptances are again at a high level – at around 300 per day.
“We are looking forward to the climax. We still have a little capacity, but not much,” says the head of the Red Cross. He knows that he can rely on his 24 employees: “There are always new ones, but basically we are a very well-established team,” he hopes to soon be over the worst.
Source: Nachrichten
