Another meeting of members of the federal government, provincial governors and the experts of the nationwide Covid crisis coordination is scheduled for Thursday “Gecko”Is set. At this, the current situation is to be discussed and the effectiveness of the previous measures evaluated, as the panel of experts announced on Sunday by broadcast. A press conference will then be held about the results of the deliberations.
Over the holidays, the Federal Government has the “Gecko”Submitted several sets of questions about the further management of the pandemic. At the moment – also in several sub-groups – they are constantly being worked on to answer them. The focus is on the Omikron variant and its effects. The next full meeting of the expert group (not open to the media) will take place on Tuesday. One of the topics will be a shortening of the quarantine period for vaccinated Omikron infected people. Vienna’s City Councilor for Health Peter Hacker had suggested this in advance out of concern about supply bottlenecks.
In the opinion of the committee, the corona situation in Austria is “still serious”. All efforts should be aimed at keeping the number of cases as low as possible. With the currently valid package of measures – including FFP2 mask requirement, lockdown for unvaccinated people – the incidences in the country would initially only increase “moderately”. From the experts’ point of view, this is also necessary in order to gain time, “because very rapid changes are to be expected due to the virus variant Omikron”.
The SPÖ chairman Pamela Rendi-Wagner has already had immediate government consultations with the “Gecko“Commission called in to decide on measures to prevent another lockdown. “A new wave is coming our way. After the Christmas holidays, when the schools reopen, we have to reckon with five-digit infection numbers. Nevertheless, the federal government seems to have slept through this wave over the holidays ”, she demanded in a statement to the APA that uniform measures should be adopted quickly throughout Austria.
Specifically, the SPÖ boss calls for an immediate switch to home office wherever possible. In addition, a strong offensive with booster vaccinations is necessary for Rendi-Wagner: The third vaccination should be available after three months and as an incentive a 500 euro vaccination bonus introduced in January and mobile vaccination teams of the armed forces deployed. “We have to buy time before the wave comes.” At the same time, the SPÖ chairwoman – like molecular biologist Ulrich Elling – calls for more transparency in the “Gecko“Consultations. “Meetings and decisions of ‘Gecko‘must be traceable and transparent. “
