Coronavirus in Austria: Salzburg state clinics are preparing triage

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Intensive care unit of the University Hospital Salzburg (archive picture): Who should help first?

Photo: Unknown / SALK / APA / dpa

Hospital care in the Austrian state of Salzburg is on the brink due to the tense corona situation.

The Salzburg State Clinics (Salk) announced on Tuesday that a triage team would be put together because the treatment of all patients according to the applicable standards could soon no longer be guaranteed.

Triage means that medical professionals must decide who to help first due to scarce resources. According to the spokesman for the clinics, the six-person team - consisting of five doctors and a lawyer - will in future advise who can still be treated in intensive care and who cannot.

With more than 1500 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants, Salzburg currently has the highest seven-day incidence of any Austrian federal state.

Upper Austria follows closely behind with a value of more than 1400. Austria's intensive care physicians therefore called for a short lockdown for the general population in these two regions on Tuesday.

The situation is "very, very tense," said Walter Hasibeder, the president of the Ögari (Austrian Society for Anesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine).

"We therefore urgently appeal to those in charge of politics to take the necessary measures to significantly reduce the incidence of infections," quoted ORF Salk managing director Paul Sungler.

Stand with your back to the wall.

"No more time to think about it"

The conservative ÖVP of Federal Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg has vehemently opposed the initiative of Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) to introduce nightly exit restrictions nationwide. Instead, the conservative Chancellor Party is relying on the lockdown for unvaccinated people, which has been in force in Austria since Monday. Mückstein wants to reassess the situation on Wednesday.

In response to the call for help from the clinic operator with its four hospitals, Salzburg's head of state Wilfried Haslauer (ÖVP) announced relief measures. Among other things, some corona patients are to be accommodated in centers for medical rehabilitation. In addition, booster vaccinations should be brought forward and the third dose should be available for all vaccinated persons after four months. "Since the effect of the vaccine wears off considerably after four to six months, the booster vaccination will prevent severe courses and thus also relieve the hospitals," says the website of the State of Salzburg.

In addition, the vaccination capacities are to be increased again, according to the information, vaccinations with and without registration will be possible in each district from Monday to Sunday.

“There is no longer any time to think about it.

The first prick is important, but so is the booster vaccination, «says Haslauer.

"It now depends on each and every one of them."

he / dpa