Corona pandemic
Hospitals in Salzburg are preparing for triage
A sign in a clinic shows the way to the corona intensive care unit. Photo: Robert Michael / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Increasing patient numbers are pushing the clinics in parts of Austria to the limit. The federal state of Salzburg is now preparing for triage – the decision of who can still be treated in intensive care and who cannot.
Hospital care in the Austrian state of Salzburg is on the brink due to the tense corona situation.
The Salzburg state clinics announced on Tuesday that a triage team was being put together because treatment of all patients according to the applicable standards could soon no longer be guaranteed. According to the spokesman for the clinics, the team will in future advise who can still be treated in intensive care and who cannot.
With more than 1,500 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants, Salzburg currently has the highest seven-day incidence among the Austrian federal states. Upper Austria follows closely behind with a value of more than 1400. Austria’s intensive care physicians therefore called for a short lockdown for the general population in these two regions on Tuesday. The situation is “very, very tense,” said Walter Hasibeder, president of the ÖGARI professional association.
ÖVP against night exit restrictions
The conservative ÖVP of Federal Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg has vehemently opposed the initiative of Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) to introduce nationwide nocturnal exit restrictions in the past few days. Instead, the conservative Chancellor Party is relying on the lockdown for unvaccinated people, which has been in force in Austria since Monday. Mückstein wants to reassess the situation on Wednesday.
In response to the call for help from the clinic operator with its four hospitals, Salzburg’s head of state Wilfried Haslauer (ÖVP) announced relief measures. Among other things, some corona patients are to be accommodated in centers for medical rehabilitation.