When Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein soon lift the obligation to isolate people who are corona positive, they will refer to “experiences from neighboring countries such as Austria”. So abroad is a role model for this step, which triggered criticism from Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD); he rejects the four federal states going it alone and sees no medical reason to forgo the obligation to isolate.
In Austria, since August, nobody has to be automatically quarantined if there is a positive corona test. Instead, “traffic restrictions” apply. If you don’t feel sick, you can go anywhere with an FFP2 mask. You can take them off outdoors if you keep a distance of two meters from other people. However, those who have symptoms must stay at home and take sick leave. Those who have no symptoms are not only allowed to go for a walk, but also to work.
This also applies to teachers and, in principle, also to hospital staff – although almost all federal states have tightened their regulations, for example to send all those who have tested positive home if they have contact with patients. Teachers’ associations report that almost all of those who tested positive also felt symptoms and therefore stayed at home. This is probably also due to the fact that there are no longer regular school tests, so only a few are allowed to test themselves without a reason.
The government referred to Spain and Denmark
When the government in Vienna decided on the regulation in July, it did not meet with unanimous approval. The social democratic opposition spoke of “irresponsibility”. Even the government’s own advisory body warned that the step was “associated with a series of incalculable risks”. Chancellor Karl Nehammer from the Christian Democratic ÖVP and the Green Health Minister Johannes Rauch, on the other hand, referred to other EU countries such as Denmark and Spain, where isolation had already been abolished without there having been a critical increase in illnesses. This has also been the experience in Austria since then.
The number of active laboratory-confirmed cases initially even fell to just over 40,000 by mid-September. Then there was an “October wave” with a peak value of around 135,000, meanwhile the values are back to the low level of late summer. Whereby: The number of tests is no longer as high as before, when Austria boasted of being the “test world champion”. Wastewater investigations also indicate a high number of unreported cases. Hospital occupancy rose because of the October wave without clinics coming close to being overwhelmed.
However, should the values develop in a worrying manner again, the Minister of Health wants to react with a four-stage plan. This ranges from the obligation to wear masks and the reintroduction of quarantine to general restrictions – although lockdowns would probably only be an option in the event of a catastrophic development. You can currently sit on buses and trains without a mask, except in Vienna. There, a majority wear the mask in the subway, but there are always those who “forget” to do so, but without causing an uproar.
Anyone who is sick should stay at home
The four German states did not name another role model besides Austria. But Baden-Württemberg is certainly looking at a neighboring country with which it shares a border that is more than 350 kilometers long: Switzerland. She already abolished the obligation to isolate people who were corona positive in April.
In contrast to Austria, infected people with symptoms are not obliged to stay at home. The mask requirement was abolished in all areas, and left-wing politicians were not heard with the demand that they should at least be retained in hospitals, trains and buses. The recommendations are also in Switzerland: If you are ill, stay at home.
More than seven months later, the indicators do not suggest that the end of all measures would have made the infection situation worse. Incidence as well as sewage samples indicated a decline until early June, before levels – apparently due to omicron variant BA.5 – rose to a summer high that the public health sector was able to cope with. The authorities in Bern are currently reporting almost 43,000 active corona cases, so the official figures, which should of course be treated with caution, are comparable to those in Austria.
However, a debate broke out in Switzerland about the increased excess mortality. Ivo Karrer, chief physician at a clinic in Winterthur, said in the “Tages-Anzeiger”: “Epidemiologically, there is a clear temporal connection between waves of strong virus activity followed by waves of excess mortality among those over the age of sixty-five.” The Federal Office of Public Health, on the other hand, said that it was not yet confirmed to be able to give reasons. The Austrian government attributes the current excess mortality to a bundle of factors, not primarily to Corona, but to the heat wave.
