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Four Austrian districts classed as ‘high risk’ due to rising cases

Four districts of Austria have been classified as 'high risk' under the country's traffic light alert system for rising Covid-19 infections.

Published: 16 October 2020 17:52 CEST
Updated: 16 October 2020 19:35 CEST
Four Austrian districts classed as 'high risk' due to rising cases
Photo: ODD ANDERSEN / AFP

In August, Austria announced it would implement a four-colour traffic light system to help minimise the risk of a second wave and another nationwide lockdown. 

On Friday, four districts were switched to ‘red' – the first time any part of Austria has been classified as such under the scheme. 

EXPLAINED: How does Austria's coronavirus traffic light system work? 

Hallein (Salzburg), Wels-Stadt (Upper Austria)  Innsbruck-Stadt and Innsbruck-Land (Tyrol) have become the first districts to be denoted as red under the country's coronavirus traffic light scheme.

Several other regions were switched to orange or yellow on Thursday. 

An updated map which shows the level of every single region in Austria can be found here. 

What is Austria’s coronavirus traffic light system? 

Put in place in the middle of September, the traffic lights are updated once every seven days. 

MAPS: Where are Austria's emerging coronavirus hotspots? 

The four colours indicate levels of risk and will be implemented at a district level. 

The levels are: green (low risk), yellow (medium risk), orange (high risk) and red (acute). 

A region will be ‘green’ where there is low risk due to individual cases and heavily isolated clusters. 

A region will be ‘yellow’ where there are individual cases but the clusters are less isolated. 

A region will be deemed ‘orange’ where there has been an accumulation of cases and clusters are no longer traceable. 

Finally, a region will be deemed ‘red’ – i.e. high risk – where the outbreaks are uncontrolled and the virus is widespread. 

Austria's traffic light system has won plaudits internationally, but has also been subject to criticism. Image: AFP

What does each colour mean?

This has been one of the most controversial aspects of the scheme, DPA reports. 

This is primarily because no set metrics have been developed – and each Austrian state or region has not committed to uniform metrics. 

In September, some of Austria’s western states put in place a curfew despite a low warning level, whereas the darker coloured Vienna refused to do so. 

The Ministry of Health and the Chancellery said on Monday that the measures should be “targeted and regional”, which can be confusing. 

However, Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said that four main areas would be impacted should a region be deemed red: schools, bars, private parties and nursing homes, OE24 reported on Wednesday. 

If a district turns red, then high school students would undertake ‘e-learning’ i.e. home schooling. 

Bars would be given an earlier curfew, although this would depend on the region and the seriousness of the situation. 

The 10pm curfew in place in Vorarlberg, Tyrol and Salzburg could be adopted, or a far stricter curfew of 5pm – which is currently in place in Kuchl – could be implemented. 

The curfew applies only to bars and not to restaurants.

The current ten-person limit for private parties would be reduced to five. 

 

Finally, nursing home visits would be completely banned. 

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HEALTH

Patients in Vienna face long waits for specialist health appointments

Waiting times to get appointments with health specialists in Vienna have increased significantly, a new study has revealed.

Published: 17 May 2024 09:56 CEST
Patients in Vienna face long waits for specialist health appointments

Accessing essential healthcare within a reasonable timeframe is becoming increasingly difficult for Viennese residents.

The Vienna Medical Association presented their new study this week which shows that waiting times for appointments with health specialists have increased significantly in recent years.

The study, which involved contacting over 850 doctors’ practices via so-called “mystery calls,” revealed that child and adolescent psychiatry currently had the longest waiting times in the city.

Patients can expect to wait an average of 90 days for an appointment.

Other specialisations where patients have to wait long to receive help include radiology (57 days), neurology (45 days), ophthalmology (44 days), pulmonology (36 days), internal medicine (33 days), and dermatology (28 days).

The waiting time for seeing a gynaecologist has increased fourfold since 2012, with patients now waiting an average of 32 days.

READ MORE: Why are there fewer public sector doctors in Austria?

No new patients accepted

In certain specialist areas, there is no capacity to accommodate new patients. The situation where no new patients are accepted occurs particularly often in paediatric practices, where more than half of the public healthcare practices have put a freeze on admissions.

In child and adolescent psychiatry, 40 percent do not accept new patients, and among gynaecologists, it is almost a third (30 percent). Family doctors also struggle with welcoming new patients, and many of their practices have already reached full capacity.

The Medical Association calls for immediate action, urging the health insurance sector to become more attractive and receive better funding. This could involve measures to incentivise doctors to work within the public system, potentially reducing wait times and improving patient access to care.

During the study presentation, Johannes Steinhart, president of the association, described the increased waiting times as the result of neglect within the established health insurance sector. He said he believes that the public health system is massively endangered.

Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied, chairwoman of the Curia of the resident doctors in the association, pointed out that while the population of the federal capital has grown by 16 percent since 2012, the number of public doctors has fallen by 12 percent in the same period.

The association now wants to make the public healthcare system more attractive to doctors, which could cut down waiting times and make it easier for patients to receive care. The association’s demands for this to happen include increasing flexibility in contract options, integrating health and social professions in individual practices, reducing bureaucracy, and improving fees.

ÖGK, Österreichische Gesundheitskasse, Austria’s largest public healthcare fund, is currently creating 100 additional public health positions, with almost two-thirds of the positions already having applicants, as well as planning for another 100 positions. They also aim to create a central telemedicine service and a platform for making appointments by phone and online, which is meant to reduce waiting times and improve access to care.

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