“Steeply upwards” – now corona figures continue to rise

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Corona numbers continue to rise, hospitals are filling up, and the end of the wave is nowhere in sight.

COVID-19 has no longer been notifiable since the summer of 2023. However, the virus has not disappeared; quite the opposite: the coronavirus load in wastewater is currently higher than ever before. Experts, such as molecular biologist Ulrich Elling, predict that the peak of the wave has not yet been reached. “The levels are continuing to rise sharply in all federal states,” the expert said in an interview with “Heute.” This is probably because, in addition to the currently dominant XBB lines, the fast-growing JN.1 variant is now also in the mix. “The proportion of JN.1 is doubling every week and will soon dominate the infection rate. Together with other effects, it is responsible for the fact that the numbers are currently so high and are still rising.”

Estimates from wastewater monitoring in Tyrol have shown that up to four percent of the population is currently corona-positive. This is also shown by the sick leave reports. According to the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK), 38,996 insured persons were at home in the last week of November due to a COVID-19 infection. This is even more than 10,000 more than at the same time in 2022 when there were 21,767 sickness notifications due to SARS-CoV-2.

Over 800 infected people have also recently been admitted to hospital (as of week 46), at least 14 of whom ended up in intensive care. Of these – as of December 2 – 161 people with a Covid diagnosis were hospitalized in Vienna, including seven patients in an intensive care unit.
However, a clear picture emerges here: “The majority of inpatients are between 80-89 years old. Only a very small number of intensive care admissions – 4 percent of all admissions”, the Vienna Health Association told “Heute”. Only 13 patients were under 60 years old.

No information could be provided on request as to whether people diagnosed with COVID-19 in the hospitals had been vaccinated or not. “This is not asked as standard.”