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Corona test center in Vienna, 2021: More PCR tests are carried out in the Austrian capital than in all of Germany
Photo: Leopold Nekula / Vienna Report / IMAGO
In Germany, the number of corona infections is exploding because of Omikron, the health authorities are overloaded and the PCR tests are scarce.
Only selected groups should be entitled to a PCR test.
Compared to Germany, PCR tests are carried out much more frequently in Austria – especially in Vienna, where more PCR tests are carried out than in the whole of Germany.
The Lead Horizon company, which handles the logistics for the PCR test kits, is now considering expanding to Germany.
There are talks with German laboratories that could evaluate the PCR tests, but no concrete offers, it is said.
German ministry wrong?
How the PCR tests work in Vienna is probably not known everywhere in Germany.
The political scientist Natascha Strobl, among others, drew attention to corresponding media reports on Twitter.
Oliver Ewald, spokesman for the German Ministry of Health, talks about "lollipop tests" that are carried out in Austria.
These "would not have sufficient significance in terms of the infection load," as Tilo Jung noted here in this excerpt from a press conference on Monday.
Ewald later qualified his statements with regard to the significance.
Here are the facts
The PCR tests used as part of "Alles gurgelt" in Vienna are not lollipop tests, but - as the name suggests - gargling tests.
In this respect, this criticism is a "missing of the subject," says Mario Dujaković, spokesman for City Councilor for Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ).
more on the subject
300,000 tests per day: Can the Vienna PCR miracle also work in Germany?By Patrick Beuth and Claus Hecking
PCR lollipop tests are currently only used in one test run in 46 kindergartens in Vienna.
The point here is to try out whether a lollipop with a glucose coating provides better saliva samples than the coatings that have been used up to now.
Other PCR lollipop tests, such as those used in Germany, did not produce convincing results because those tested did not succeed in salivating the cellulose on the lollipop sufficiently, explains Dujaković.
Hamburger misunderstandings?
The Mayor of Hamburg, Peter Tschentscher (SPD) - can be found here in the ARD media library - said that in Vienna "PCR diagnostics are not offered via professional laboratories, but via drugstores and similar providers".
That is not so easy in Germany.
Here are the facts
The Viennese "everything gargles" tests are all evaluated in laboratories, and the diagnostics take place there, counters Dujaković.
Legally, there is no other way, since these are medical devices.
The logistics are independent of the diagnostics.
The "Alles gurgelt" test kits are issued and collected again in branches of the Bipa drugstore chain, but there are also dispensing boxes in supermarkets and petrol stations, for example.
There are a total of around 700 collection points in Vienna.
Mixture of tests that don't even exist?
In the news program "Phoenix - der Tag" on Monday, the Vienna PCR tests are described as "a mixture of a rapid test and a PCR test".
They would not be examined in laboratories.
Here are the facts
In Vienna, the test evaluation works quickly, but it has nothing to do with quick tests, for example based on antigens, which show results within 15 minutes.
These are conventional, thorough, EU-wide certified PCR tests.
The only 16 hours on average that elapse between sample submission and notification of the result are possible due to the organization of the sample evaluation.
In the laboratories of the commissioned company Life Brain, 1600 people are currently working under the supervision of doctors.
The samples are processed in extra-large machines – ten at a time in so-called pools of ten.
An average of 302,000 tests per day are currently evaluated in Vienna, 800,000 per day would be manageable.
Life Brain maintains commercial laboratories in which, in contrast to laboratories in the established sector, auxiliary staff are also employed.
That saves money.
Instead of 25 euros per test, which a resident laboratory receives from the federal government, a test at “Alles gurgelt” costs just six euros.
Contract workers only?
In the magazine "Brisant" (can be found here in the ARD media library), a representative of German laboratory doctors describes the difference in the evaluation of PCR tests in Austria and Germany with specialization.
In a tweet, the Association of German Laboratory Doctors speaks of temporary workers.
Here are the facts
City council spokesman Dujaković says that everyone involved in the “Everything gurgles” campaign is employed.
This includes the drugstore and supermarket workers who hand out the test kits, as well as the postal workers who collect them and bring them to the laboratories - and the employees in the laboratories themselves.
Life Brain Laboratories are still recruiting.
A full-time job there brings in 2400 euros gross per month.
This video from May 2021, in which we followed the journey of a PCR test kit, shows how the PCR gargle tests work in Austria.
This article was taken over by our cooperation partner, the Austrian news portal »Der Standard«.
