Vaccinations: Vienna works on pre-notification concept for mentally ill patients

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Vienna will also vaccinate younger Corona risk patients starting Monday. Persons with mental illnesses are now also to have their turn.

Meanwhile, 63,000 appointments have already been activated for this group. This includes people suffering from asthma or diabetes, for example. People with mental illnesses are now also to have their turn. They can now be pre-registered. A corresponding category in the Vienna Immunization Service has been available since Friday afternoon.

Vaccination preregistrations for mentally ill should be made possible
“We are trying to find a solution,” stressed a spokesman for Vienna’s City Health Councillor Peter Hacker (SPÖ) on Friday as published by the Austrian News Agency. However, it is still unclear how many people fall into the group, he said. This is because there is no central register, he added. To plan the use of the vaccine, however, it is necessary to know the approximate order of magnitude.

Also, he said, it has not yet been definitively defined who falls into the category in question. In any case, the aim is to enable mentally ill people to be vaccinated quickly, it was assured. The category should be added as soon as possible to the preregistration system.

Risk patients need medical certificate for Corona vaccination
People who are considered at-risk patients need a medical certificate or a medical report in any case. This also applies to people who are overweight. People with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30 are now also vaccinated. However, it is not sufficient to prove this by means of scales at the vaccination appointment. Medical proof is also required for this.

In Vienna, around 130,000 at-risk patients have already registered with the vaccination service. Around 65,000 people from this group have already completed their vaccination appointment or have at least booked it. Since the majority of 62.7 percent are 65 years or older, they can be immunized through the general vaccination campaign for people born in 1956 or older. For the younger high-risk group, 63,000 immunization appointments have now been opened. For the group of younger high-risk patients – which includes people with active cancer or severe dementia – vaccinations began last Monday.