Austria is a good model in the fight against Covid-19- No more!

12 Nov 2020

From bad to worse!

Austria is doing even worse than England in the spread of the virus despite a second 'light lockdown''. A perfect example of how a country that was doing well is now performing so bad!

Sharp Criticism

The guidelines have caused an uproar among teachers and directors, who have been told that lessons should continue normally until health authorities take further steps. The Federation of Austrian School Directors has immediately filed a formal complaint and teachers – who were just informed today – are also criticizing the new guidelines sharply.

Since Austria entered its second “softer” lockdown on November 3, the country has debated whether the measures were strict enough to flatten the curve. One particular bone of contention has been schools and kindergartens, which have stayed open for children up to 14 years old. Austria’s Education Minister Heinz Faßmann (ÖVP) points to the essential function of schools especially for young children and those with learning difficulties, as well as for society, and home schooling deemed hard to impossible for many parents.

But there is also a growing chorus of researchers and international experts who warn that the role of schools in the spread of the virus must not be underestimated.

On Monday, November 9, four Austrian scientists called for an “immediate closure of all schools.” Schools are not the sole cause of the explosion in case numbers, they wrote, but “certainly make a significant contribution;” closing them is “one of the most effective individual measures.” On the current trajectory, say the four scientists, “Austria is hurtling into the disaster of overburdened hospitals, where physicians triage and untreated patients must be left to die.”

26 Oct 2020

Where did it go wrong?

• The virologist Elisabeth Puchhammer-Stöckl from the Medical University of Vienna has warned that the country is losing control of the chains of infection.
• Detailed analyses in Vienna have shown that “infections are already being acquired in an unclear manner in public space (…),” was Puchhammer-Stöckl quoted.
• To the Austrian daily Kleine Zeitung, Puchhammer-Stöckl said “more and more people do not know where they infected themselves.”
• The practice of contact tracing – long seen as the ideal way to break infection chains early – is under strain under the massive count of new cases in recent weeks.

In short

After the Austrian government took increasingly drastic measures in March to contain the coronavirus, the country successfully flattened the curve in April, and gradually reopened shops, schools and restaurants again in May.

Life in Vienna got back to something like normality with summer arriving in June, while newly rising numbers in July have prompted regional lockdowns, quarantine, travel warnings and targeted measures. In August, the CoV-Ampel was introduced, and measures were gradually tightened.

In September, with cases rising again at a swift pace, stricter measures have been introduced and people were asked to limit private gatherings to 10 people at max.

With numbers high but stable at the moment, October brings new challenges in dealing with the pandemic.

There is a need to look at the data and wonder why the measures are not working. They are widely accepted by people who are complying. Where does the problem lies? Mutations? Schools? or something else we did not think about....

Update 8 September

Smart back to school planning in #Austria. The RO is now 1.02 which is good. And there are no orange of red lights. The EU system of rating which is cumulative cases by 100,000 inhabitants is flawed. If testing increase then surely infection numbers increase!

Update September 7, 2020:

Seems Austria is taking proper measures to face the new outbreak, results were quick.

• 290 new corona cases were reported within the last 24 hours, indicating that the number of new infections is declining again. 
• The crucial reproduction number (R) this Friday fell to 1.02 from 1.14 a week before – that means, one infected person currently infects on average another 1.02 people. Health authorities ascribe falling R to a decrease of new cases from travelers coming back from their holidays in countries with higher infection risk.

Update 1 September

• Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) gave a press conference today updating the population on the coronavirus situation.
• “It’s possible that there will be a vaccine already in January,” Anschober said. In the best case, he expects 600,000 doses for 300,000 people around year’s end.
• With the first vaccine batch, professionals in the health care sector and at care centers should be vaccinated. Later in the year, everybody who wants to be vaccinated should get the option.
• The minister hopes that up to five vaccinations from different producers will be available throughout the next year.
• Hygiene measures, wearing masks, good ventilation (open windows) for rooms and more vaccinations for the seasonal flu will continue to be important pillars for containing the virus over the coming months, Anschober underlined.
• Concerning current coronavirus numbers – the number of active cases in Austria rose from 1,300 in July to 3,300 at the moment – Anschober said: “This number is too high too soon. The virus was never gone, but is more visible again.” However, as long as the clusters can be tracked and traced, this would still be manageable, the minister emphasized.
• The coronavirus “traffic light system” (Corona-Ampel) that has been prepared and tested by the government over the last couple of months will also be activated this week.
• Different colors for regions and districts will activate new regional measures.

Update August 28, 2020:

Despite the slight rise in infection rates Austria seems to be fearing well.

Medicine has got better at treating patients with COVID-19 at different stages of the disease, leading to much lower rates of serious and fatal cases.

As a result, hospitalization rates for COVID-19 in Austria have remained relatively low and stable during the last months.

In September, the family package of the government will pay out €360 for every child living in Austria.

Moreover, the first income tax bracket will be lowered from 25% to 20% retroactively for this entire year, a measure that is meant to put more money into the pockets of employees.

The whole package will cost €2.7 billion and is a part of a whole array of stimulus measures aimed to help the economy recover from its corona-induced break.

Economic forecasts have also been adjusted recently.

For Austria, the WIFO now expects a slump of -6.8% – harsh, but better than the forecasts of June (-7%) and April (-7.5%).

For the European Union as a whole, the OECD is now expecting a drop of -9.1%.

In the meantime, Austrian industry has already recovered to the levels seen in 2015, faster than industry in the eurozone and in neighboring Germany.

The Austrian tourism industry reported -44.6% fewer overnight stays in the months May to July 2020, compared to last year. Nevertheless, the rebound after the reopening was stronger than expected. In July 2020, there were “only” -17.2% less overnight stays than last year, with domestic tourism up (+15.2%) and tourist stays from abroad down (-28.7%).

This compares well with France (-55.7%) and Italy.

Update August 21, 2020:

Something went wrong in fully opening the country to tourism and public events. 

The number of new coronavirus cases detected in the last 14 days compared to the two weeks before increased by 46% in the United Kingdom and by 69% in Austria.

While Austria has successfully flattened the curve early on, thus containing the virus and keeping the number of deaths from COVID-19 relatively low (729 at present), the UK took longer – leading to one of the most severe outbreaks in Europe (with 41,397 fatalities at present) – and then shut down harder.

As a consequence, the easing measures came earlier and were more sweeping in Austria – making higher numbers of reinfections down the road relatively more likely – while large swathes of UK public life are still on standby.

Germany who did well and was moving along the same line in Austria and Germany is still doing well. Need to consider why.

Update 7 August 2020

Reintroducing face masks in Supermarkets and closed areas was a good quick action. It proves effective. Lesson learned.

Update 30 July
On Rathausplatz | Opera and Ballet Are Still Larger Than Life

The city of Vienna is keeping 'culture for all' alive, even during coronavirus times.

Update 23 July
Seems a harsh measure. Yet, it was a careless action that might have resulted in infecting many other people. Face masks protect us all from such actions. We can never be sure that all citizens are responsible. Sad, but true.

• The first trial in Austria concerning the breach of coronavirus containment measures kicked off today in Carinthia.
• The defendant is a 49-year-old woman from Klagenfurt who was tested positive for COVID-19 and was thus obliged to self-isolate at home.
• Nevertheless, she went to the supermarket and the post office without a mask.
• The woman is charged with having breached the quarantine restrictions deliberately and carelessly (i.e. not wearing a mask), endangered others to catch a dangerous disease.
• The maximum penalty is up to three years in prison.
• The trial is the first of its kind in Austria; a future ruling is already considered to become a landmark in how to adjudicate breaches of coronavirus measures in the country.

Some time ago I wrote a blog wondering if Austria was winning the war against Covid-19.

https://fromacrosscultures.blogspot.com/2020/04/is-austria-winning-war-against.html

Drastic and coordinated measures were taken in March to contain the corona virus from lock down to preparedness in the health system. Austrians positively accepted the measures abiding by social distancing and other recommendations. The government implemented an effective testing and tracking policy.






In April the country successfully flattened the curve and achieved one of the lowest death rate in Europe.

The government gradually reopened shops, schools and restaurants again in May. By June life was almost normal.

First of June face masks were no more mandatory in all close places. 
If one looks at the data, it is very clear that it was not a wise decision.

Almost 800,000 tests have been carried out in Austria. That means almost every tenth citizen of Austria has been tested since the beginning of the pandemic.
With cases rising again in Austria; society is trying to find a new balance between containing the virus and living daily life through focused testing, tracking and tracing.

July 21, 2020:

• Starting this Friday, July 24, wearing a mask will again be mandatory in supermarkets as well as in banks and post offices

• Many new cases had their origins abroad, particularly in the Balkans, which is why Austria will strengthen border control measures and control quarantine measures for travelers more stringently.

• Several new clusters in recent weeks were identified within church congregations, which is why masses and other services will also be reduced in frequency going forward.

• The government publish “corona traffic light system” for Austrian regions in August. 

• Scientists at the Technical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna are working on an ambitious corona virus test program in the sewage plants of 20 Austrian cities.