Stelzer: “Lockdown will probably have to take longer in Upper Austria” – Coronavirus

by time news

From Monday all of Austria will be locked down for 20 days. In Upper Austria, the shutdown is likely to take longer, said the state boss.

The corona situation in Austria has been worsening for weeks. The most violent developments were in Upper Austria and Salzburg. Recently, the situation in the hospitals in these two federal states was more than tense.

Read more: Too many corona deaths – corpses are in the hospital on the aisle

The first hospitals no longer had any intensive care beds available. For this reason, a general lockdown for everyone, which will apply from Monday, has been decided here – even before the rest of the country. Before that, the measures, in addition to the announcement of a lockdown for unvaccinated people, were also significantly tightened.

In view of the dramatic developments, there was ultimately no avoiding a general lockdown. On Saturday, Upper Austria’s governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP) visited Klaus Webhofer “in the journal” on the subject. The politician said at the beginning that it was “a serious situation”. A lockdown was therefore indispensable – regardless of whether it had come nationwide.

“Nobody can do everything right”

They have always tried to respond to current developments and to take measures very quickly. But it cannot be denied that mistakes happen in the process. Accordingly, criticism is also justified, but: “Nobody can do everything right – including me,” Stelzer clarifies at this point.

There are certainly no excuses, but one must now look ahead and continue the fight against the pandemic. First and foremost, it is about protecting the health of people, the health system and its employees. An important step in this is vaccination.

According to Stelzer, many vaccination offers have been made in the past few weeks – “very broad and low-threshold”, spread across the entire state. Nevertheless, it was not possible to get enough people to have a vaccination, which in turn was reflected in the numbers. For this reason, a lockdown as a massive measure was inevitable.

Lockdown in Upper Austria is probably longer

According to the government, the general lockdown will end on December 12th at the latest, and that for the unvaccinated will continue beyond that. In Upper Austria, the lockdown will probably take longer for everyone.

“From today’s perspective, the lockdown for Upper Austria will probably have to take longer,” explained the regional manager at Ö1.

It is not possible to orientate yourself on specific corona numbers. What is certain, however, is that the number of new infections recorded daily, which currently amounts to an average of 4,000 in Upper Austria, “has to go down significantly”. The same also applies to the number of (intensive) patients in hospitals. The growth would also have to decrease significantly, “so that there is relief in the hospitals,” explains Stelzer.

Lockdown over Christmas?

If he Lockdown beyond Christmas too the governor does not dare to answer. “Delta has given us so many surprises that I don’t want to mess with numbers.” An extension of the shutdown is also over Christmas quite possible, but he does not wish this:

“I’m honest, I can’t predict how this lockdown will work, so I can’t make any promises.”

Nevertheless, his hope lies in the fact that a Christmas “as we know and are used to” will be possible, at least for those who have been vaccinated. However, given the current situation, he could not promise it.

Vaccinations are key

Once again he emphasized the enormous importance of vaccination in the fight against Corona. For this reason, the vaccination offer has been expanded to include additional vaccination routes and an vaccination lottery. In the last few days, the offer has also been used significantly more.

But the vaccination numbers are mainly driven by second and third stitches, says Stelzer. First stitches are currently “still too few”. The head of the country hopes that the “compulsory vaccination should pull us out of it” announced for February.

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