Salzburg: So far there has been no additional rush for PCR tests in Austria
Red Cross Salzburg: “Germans come to us to work, to go shopping, to eat out, so we are glad that they know their status”. But the Salzburg region cannot report a real rush of corona test refugees from Bavaria.
Salzburg / Freilassing – After the end of the free PCR tests in Germany are also in the municipal test station in Bay Gmain the test numbers decreased drastically. While 2532 smears were taken in the week before the end of the free test, in the week from October 11th there were only 621, which is around 75 percent fewer. At the peak of the third wave at the end of March 2021, 7,811 smears from the municipal test station were also evaluated. Fears that numerous district residents are still using the free test facilities in Salzburg have not been confirmed.
That too The Bavarian Red Cross closed its test station in Hauptstrasse in Freilassing on October 10th, “Because due to the new state framework, only commercial operations would be possible,” said Florian Halter. The private test station Beck in Lindenstrasse is still open, where a rapid antigen test costs 15 euros.
The second option for corona tests is offered by the train station pharmacy on Reichenhaller Straße, where the popularity is still good. More people could be tested on Friday than in the week before.
Slight increase noticeable in Salzburg
In the week after October 10, the Salzburg Red Cross noticed a slight increase in corona tests in the two test stations in the Kongresshaus and near the main train station. In the week from 11th to 17th October – also the first payment week in Germany – the number of rapid antigen tests in the city rose from around 5000 in the previous weeks to 5662. “We don’t know whether this increase was due to Bavarian test subjects “, So Red Cross spokeswoman Roberta Thanner,” the increase is not noticeable, we have had weeks with up to 21,000 rapid antigen tests “. If residents from the border area in Salzburg can be tested for free, that’s okay too“Because they work for us, shop with us, go out to eat with us or to the cinema, and it’s good if they know their status”.
Registration for the test via the Salzburg website
Incidentally, eleven of the 5662 rapid antigen tests were positive, “they are reported to the health department, and if a person from Bavaria IS there, it is also reported to the responsible health department in Germany”. The fact is that you do not have to provide an Austrian residential address or Austrian social insurance for the free tests in Austria. You can register for the free corona tests online www.salzburg-testet.at.
The health committee of the Austrian parliament had only decided in October to continue assuming the test costs until the end of March 2022, although there were voices in some federal states that, like in Germany, called for the end of the free tests. In the Austrian budget, the free tests will devour around 1.8 billion euros by the end of the year.