According to the Ministry of Health, the epidemiological reporting system (EMS), in which the official corona test results from all over Austria are collected centrally, threatens to collapse due to overload. The dynamics of the fourth wave are currently leading to an “unprecedented number of test results”, which poses an “acute challenge” for the EMS, according to the APA ministry in the evening.
Only report positive cases
“To prevent the EMS from collapsing, the Ministry of Health has instructed federal states and laboratories to only register people with positive test results in the EMS from now on,” the APA said on Thursday evening. Negative test results and suspected cases may not be reported until further notice. Instead, they should be processed using the state’s own systems.
This measure affects Vienna, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg. Styria, Carinthia and Burgenland are excluded “due to other technical requirements”. The “emergency measure” will remain in place until it can be determined that the EMS remains “sufficiently efficient” due to the decreasing number of cases, it said.