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An employee of a clinic in Salzburg in the intensive care unit
Photo: Barbara Gindl / dpa
According to the government, triages occur in hospitals in Austria due to the high number of corona patients.
Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) said in the main committee of parliament on Tuesday evening that these would take place not only for light operations, but also for those for cancer patients.
In some cases it has to be decided which patient has the better chance of survival.
The lockdown, which has been in place for over a week, is now having an effect, but the number of infections is still at a very high level and the situation in the hospitals is dramatic.
Load limit clearly exceeded
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"The intensive care units have never been as full during the pandemic as they are today," said Mückstein. According to the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, there are currently 3,458 people in hospital treatment due to the coronavirus, 624 of them are being cared for in intensive care units. This means that the load limit of 30 percent of intensive care beds is clearly exceeded. According to Mückstein, the capacity situation will worsen in the next one or two weeks - especially with regard to human resources.
The Salzburger Landeskliniken (Salk) announced two weeks ago 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.
Austria has been in a nationwide lockdown for over a week.
As expected, the amendment to the ordinance has now been extended to December 11th.
The number of new infections recently fell to around 8,000 from around 16,000 in mid-November.
12,492 people died in Austria in connection with the corona virus.
svs / Reuters