PCR tests: Further problems with evaluation
Coronavirus
In the state of Salzburg there are still major problems with the timely evaluation of PCR tests. The laboratories are overloaded. The tests in pharmacies and at “Salzburg gargles” are affected. It looks better on the test streets of the Red Cross.
Because of the overloading of the assigned laboratories, many tests cannot be evaluated in a timely manner. Only five out of 30 pharmacies in the city of Salzburg currently offer PCR tests, in the country there are a handful, at the same time a spokesman for the Salzburg Chamber of Pharmacists on APA request. Those five pharmacies in the state capital where a PCR test is still possible could fall back on a laboratory in Salzburg that still has free capacity.
“We assume that the situation will ease due to the announced overall lockdown,” announced the spokesman for the Chamber of Pharmacists. Antigen tests that apply to the 3G rule in the workplace can still be offered by pharmacies. Such tests are carried out in around 60 of 94 pharmacies in the city and state of Salzburg: “The result is there in 20 minutes”.
Significant delays in “Salzburg gargles”
The high positive rate continues to pose major challenges for the Novogenia biotech laboratory, which carries out the “Salzburg gurgelt” tests. The pooling process, in which several tests are evaluated together, has reached its limits. The situation has not improved on Thursday, as a spokesman for the Eugendorf company reports. Those tested when & in some cases continue to accept delays before the transmission of their PCR test results. The announced lockdown can ease the situation because fewer people will need a PCR test as confirmation during this time, it said.
The technical problems with the homepage are likely to have largely been eliminated, said the Novogenia spokesman. “We assume that it is now much more stable.”
At Red Cross test stations “it works”
There are apparently no delays in the 14 test stations across the country run by “Salzburg tests”, which the Red Cross operates on behalf of the State of Salzburg. “It works there,” said a spokesman for the country on Thursday. The test results were transmitted on time with the support of a Vienna laboratory.