Corona traffic light in Salzburg red again – Tennengau becomes the focus again
The coronavirus is spreading rapidly among the unvaccinated. Traffic light switched to red again.
Like last year, it has been becoming apparent for a few days that the corona numbers will rise sharply again in Salzburg from mid-October. Not least because of this, the traffic light commission upgraded the country to red on Thursday, which means a very high risk of infection. The most recent development of the last few days shows, on the one hand, that Tennengau is again BECOMING a Corona hotspot, which could very quickly lead to a tightening of the Corona measures there. At the same time, the district has by far the lowest vaccination rate. On the other hand, the seven-day incidence in the unvaccinated population has in some cases already reached the previous highs in previous waves of infection.
In Tennengau, the seven-day incidence was by far the highest on Thursday at 402 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Flachgau with 269 and Lungau with 268, although Salzburg’s smallest district remained low. In a comparison of the federal states, Upper Austria had the highest incidence value on Thursday, along with Salzburg (204.4) with 205.5.
For state statistician Gernot Filipp, the wave of infections is spreading from the city of Salzburg over the individual districts to the whole country, as in autumn 2020. Initially, it was mainly those returning home that led to an increase in the number of infections, but now the virus is spreading mainly among the unvaccinated. In Tennengau, 54.6 percent of the total population have been fully vaccinated so far, as Filipp says. All other districts have vaccination rates just below or just over 60 percent, Tennengau also lags significantly behind. According to Filipps im Tennengau, the seven-day incidence reached 712.4 among the unvaccinated, the last high of 750 in the previous waves of infection. For comparison: the incidence of those vaccinated was 126.1 on Thursday in Tennengau.
Filipp emphasizes: “For weeks the difference in the seven-day incidence between vaccinated and unvaccinated people has increased fivefold”. And further: “The most affected age group in the general population are the ten to under 19 year olds with an incidence of 470.”
For the state statistician, the incidence value is still meaningful because it remains an indicator for the coming weeks. Parallel to the rise in the incidence values, the number of patients in hospitals, which is ultimately decisive for politics, also rises or falls.
For Christian Pucher, spokesman for Governor Wilfried Haslauer (ÖVP), it is now a matter of reacting in good time to avoid a deterioration in the hospitals. The red light for Salzburg means that on Friday the experts from the state will deal with the Tennengau in particular. In addition to Hallein, the number of infections is particularly high in Adnet, Abtenau, Annaberg-Lungötz, St. Koloman and Kuchl.
According to Puchers, in addition to an increased FFP2 mask requirement, exit restrictions up to a 2.5 G requirement with PCR gargle tests, there are a number of measures to choose from in order to get the growing dynamism of infections under control. On Thursday, the number of corona patients in Salzburg’s hospitals rose to a total of 48 and in the intensive care units from 10 to 13.