Austria is at the end of the omicron wave. Nevertheless, the virus has Wiener Linien firmly in its grip. This is shown by the current Gecko Report.
A week before the beginning of the semester break, from February 5th to 13th, Wiener Linien put its holiday timetable into effect for some lines. Tram lines 1, 5, 10, 33, 37, 42, 44 and 52 were affected several weeks ago. The reason: an accumulation of sick leave.
“Omicron presents us with major challenges, but Wiener Linien is well prepared. As part of the critical infrastructure, we are monitoring developments very closely and are constantly expanding our comprehensive prevention concept,” emphasized Wiener Linien in a statement at the end of January.
Wiener Linien continue to fight Corona
Apparently, the situation does not seem to be any better towards the end of the fifth corona wave. Because in the current Gecko report, the “Today” there is talk of a temporary “plateau phase”. However, intervals in trams would still have to be extended, according to Gecko. For tram lines 33, 10, 5, 37, 1, 42, 44, 52, the holiday timetable has continued to apply since Monday until further notice. The remaining tram lines and all subway and bus lines are not affected by the changes.
The extension of the interval means that any staff shortages can be better covered, waiting times for passengers can be reduced to a minimum and a nationwide offer can continue to be maintained, according to Wiener Linien. The Omicron wave is also clearly noticeable among passengers, and a decline of 30 percent is currently being recorded.
The situation is also aggravated in other areas of critical infrastructure, according to the tenor of the crisis advisors. “In the meantime there are staff shortages in the chemical industry and in the pharmaceutical sector. The personnel situation is also tense in some areas in the food transport sector,” reports Gecko.
The domestic authorities reported 26,282 positive findings and 25 deaths on Saturday after delays due to a data breach. For comparison: On the Saturday of the previous week (February 12, 2022) there were 31,128 new infections. A pleasingly strong decline was thus recorded.
Read more: Freedom weekend starts with 26,282 corona cases
New omicron mutation BA.2 could soon be dominant
The gecko experts currently expect an increasing spread of the omicron subvariant BA.2 in Austria. In just a few weeks, the new variant could soon be dominant. Complexity researcher Peter Klimek therefore called for professional structures for crisis management on Saturday. He encourages orientation towards international role models such as Denmark. “But the fact that we need something like this should be one of the lessons from all of this. We have to orientate ourselves towards international excellence.”
Even after the omicron wave and the soon expected dominance of the BA.2 sub-variant, the pandemic will remain an issue. Nobody knows what future variants will bring. Due to the high immunization rate via vaccination and infection in the population, however, it can be assumed that the negative effects will be limited in the future.