Corona figures:

After a dramatic warning, suddenly everything is fine!

While corona seems to be yesterday's news for the Ministry of Health, doctors are struggling with rising numbers.

(Bild: Rojsek-Wiedergut Uta)

Corona policy in the election campaign? Apparently, the federal government does not want to actively address this. Just one day after the urgent warning of a "catastrophic situation" from the Vienna Medical Association, the Ministry of Health played everything down on Wednesday.

The situation is similar to that of the previous year and there is "not too much cause for concern", said Katharina Reich, Director General for Public Health, on Ö1's "Mittagsjournal".

"Disaster"
Vienna's Medical Association Vice President Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied, on the other hand, issued a clear warning on Tuesday: "The Covid wastewater figures are a disaster. This will overwhelm us and I am honestly afraid of the coming months."

Vienna Medical Association Vice President Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied

(Bild: klemens groh)

Doctors are worried: "Many patients are refusing treatment"
Background: Corona tests have no longer been free since April 1. However, doctors are only allowed to prescribe the effective Paxlovid if the test is positive. Kamaleyan-Schmied: "However, many of my patients can't afford the test and are therefore unable to get treatment. It's a disaster."

The Covid wastewater figures are a disaster. It's going to overwhelm us and I'm honestly dreading the next few months.

Wiens Ärztekammer-Vizepräsidentin Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied

But Reich denies this: "Both our wastewater monitoring and our dashboard for hospital admissions, as well as our sentinel surveillance - i.e. the information from the surgeries of general practitioners - show a constant but slow increase in infections. This trend is almost the same as in the previous year."

There is no reason to be concerned here.

Katharina Reich, Generaldirektorin für die öffentliche Gesundheit

Ministry: "No signs of the situation worsening"
There are also no signs that the situation in intensive care units could worsen again. According to Reich, the number of admissions due to Covid in recent weeks is "almost in single figures". "There is no reason to be worried here. We have sufficient capacity," says the Director General.

Katharina Reich

(Bild: APA/Herbert Neubauer)

However, infections are likely to rise again in the colder months of the year. "Just like last year. It's now a matter of becoming aware again when we go indoors more, when life takes place outside less, and also thinking again about how I behave when I feel symptoms of infection," said Reich.

Influenza and RSV are also not yet an issue, as these diseases only occur in the cold season. "That starts in October, November at the earliest. The peaks, i.e. the highest numbers, are actually recorded here in December, January and February. So we still have time," says Reich.

Whooping cough: Ministry calls for vaccination
With whooping cough, however, the situation is somewhat different. "We have had rising numbers of cases of whooping cough for many years, which is why there is a big call for vaccination: Whooping cough must also be regularly boostered," appealed the Secretary General.

Dispute over lack of free Covid tests 
In response to criticism from the Vienna Medical Association that the federal government no longer pays for Covid tests in doctors' surgeries, which are necessary in order to be prescribed the drug Paxlovid, Reich said the ball was in the negotiating partners' court.

"In a normal situation, as we have now, in a normal infection situation, social insurance is responsible for financing these things. And it is also up to the social insurance system to decide how this is to be negotiated between the social insurance system and the Medical Association," said the Secretary General.