Health City Councilor Peter Hacker (SPÖ) urges government to be cautious about further opening steps. Vienna wants to enter the summer with stricter rules.
The number of new infections is on the decline, today, Saturday, only 136 new Corona cases were reported. Compared to the previous week, a decrease of almost one third is shown. But Austria cannot really breathe a sigh of relief yet. The fear of the experts: The next wave is already rolling in
Despite all the optimism, Vienna’s City Councillor for Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ) calls for caution. The delta variant could spoil our summer.
“We are observing in England and in Portugal how this more contagious mutation is spreading despite a higher vaccination rate than in our country – at the latest in autumn it will also affect us,” Hacker explained in an interview with “Der Standard”. He is therefore amazed at the “carefree tone” of the federal government, which has “virtually canceled the pandemic once again.”
To prevent hospital overload or a new lockdown, Hacker said two maneuvers would have to succeed: “First, we need to chase vaccination rates up as high as we can” and “cultivate core virtues. Detect and quarantine infected people as early as possible.” The latter can only succeed, he said, if PCR testing continues at the same rate.
“Either vaccination or PCR testing could have been made mandatory for visiting bars and discos,” the councilman laments. He had wanted to discuss this with Health Minister Mückstein, but Chancellor Sebastian Kurz had jumped the gun. Hacker’s warning: “If we don’t detect, we’ll be in for a nasty surprise!”
When the pandemic will be over, no one knows, Sars-CoV-2 could be with us for many years to come, he said. Everything depends now and in the coming months on the willingness of the population to be vaccinated.
— source: heute.at/picture: pixabay.com
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