The number of Corona cases in Austria almost doubled in one week

Spread the love

Read Time:2 Minute, 37 Second

Currently, the incidence of infection seems manageable and controllable. But experts warn of the autumn wave. In Vienna, the numbers are already rising.

There are still more than 200 Covid patients in intensive care units in Austria
Vienna currently has the most registered new infections, with 1,488 new cases reported on Sunday, followed by Lower Austria in second place and Upper Austria in third. A week ago, 855 new Corona cases in the federal capital had been filed. The number of new cases has thus almost doubled.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,099,445 positive tests have been confirmed in Vienna. One million seventy thousand eight hundred ninety-one people have since recovered. The number of deaths related to the virus is 4,179, and four people have died most recently. Vienna currently has 24,375 active Covid cases.

Over the weekend, 389 people were hospitalized because of or with Covid-19 in Vienna. A week ago, on Aug. 15, there were 360 people. This is an increase of 29 people. Compared to the previous week, the number of Covid-19 patients in routine care in a post-Covid ward increased from 105 to 154. Also, the number of Covid-19 patients in critical care on a post-Covid ward went up from an initial six to a current eleven.

The reasons are obvious to experts. Immune protection in people with a more extended history of infection or vaccination continues to weaken. In addition, the return of schoolchildren to regular schooling will contribute to the increased circulation of Covid in the population. One thing to remember is that many Viennese are currently still on vacation.

It is not yet clear what the rules for testing students will look like in concrete terms. The federal government plans to announce the Corona measures at educational institutions at the end of August. However, Education Councillor Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS) made it clear in an interview with “Wien-Heute” that he does not consider comprehensive PCR testing of schoolchildren necessary with the current virus variant.

At the latest, a further increase in numbers can be expected by the end of the month. For the simple reason that more tests will probably be made by vacation homecomers who want to return to work or school. This will register positives that would otherwise go unnoticed. What is tested and found positive will subsequently enter the official statistics. For that reason alone, the numbers will rise. In addition, the summer is coming to an end.

Experts recommend getting vaccinated before the expected Corona wave in the fall. They also warn that we are only in the calm before the storm. “All forecasts assume that there will be a strong increase in the number of infections or another wave of infections in September and October,” says the head of the Department of Pulmonary Medicine at the Kepler University Hospital in Linz, Bernd Lamprecht, in an interview with the “Oberösterreichische Nachrichten.” Several studies show that immune protection against a severe disease is no longer reliably present after only six months.