In the face of the next feared coronavirus wave from the Omikron variant, the Salzburg Chamber of Commerce is calling for manageable security measures for companies. Above all, the quarantine regulations should be interpreted in the same way across Austria, says Chamber of Commerce President Peter Buchmüller.

“No tested quarantine for negative vaccines”

“We cannot shut up half the economy because too many are being quarantined as contact persons for too long. If K1 people have to be in quarantine for a longer period of time, then a lot of companies stand still. First of all, infected people die and then K1 people die. It is also a very important point that people who have been vaccinated do not have to be quarantined if they have tested negative, ”said Buchmüller. In addition, there are initial indications that the new virus variant, although dying, leads to many illnesses, but to a milder course than the previously prevalent delta variant.

Stöckl: “Different rules cannot always be avoided”

In preparation for a possible Omikron wave, all federal states would be in close coordination with the Ministry of Health, says health officer Christian Stöckl from the ÖVP: “We will make the quarantine regulation as uniform as possible across Austria so that it can be implemented easily and transparently. However, of course we do not know whether all federal states will be caught by the wave at the same speed. It is therefore possible that one or the other federal state will implement stronger rules. But of course we strive to create the simplest possible rules, because we naturally want to send as few people as possible into quarantine. “