Lowest rate since January: the vaccination campaign continues to stop

School started on Monday in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. Children can be vaccinated from the age of 12, but only 44 percent of the 12 to 15-year-old are fully immunized. In the 25- to 34-year-old, the rate is 55.7 percent and for the 35- to 44-year-olds, 61.8 percent. The older people get, the more people get vaccinated. 67.1 percent of people aged 45-54 are fully protected from vaccination, and 76.3 percent in the 55-64-year-old group. The full immunization rate for children aged 65-74 is 82 percent, the immunization rate between 75 and 84 years is 87.2 percent and the 85-plus group is 87.1 percent.

And on Monday, there were already 17,087 confirmed active cases in Austria, 197 more than on Sunday. This is more than the population of Saalfelden. There have been 597,510 positive test results since the start of the pandemic. 669,622 people are considered to have recovered. A total of 296,883 PCR and rapid antigen tests were registered in the past 24 hours. Of these, 22,854 were useful PCR tests, and 6.3 percent were positive. This is well above the average positive rate for the past week, averaging 1.8 percent of all PCR analyzes here.

Restrictions on non-vaccinators

Meanwhile, the Lower Austrian Medical Association decided on Monday that those who have been fully vaccinated (G1) and those who have recovered through vaccination (G2) “should have as few restrictions as possible”. Unvaccinated “those who act irresponsibly towards the most vulnerable in society” will “need as many restrictions as possible”.

The chamber explained that the vaccination rate must eventually be increased through effective measures, and the measures taken by politicians so far are very reluctant. “We urgently need mandatory vaccination of people working in the healthcare system across Austria, an end to free tests and a short validity period for PCR and antigen tests,” said President Christoph Reisner.

“There is no room for getting around this if we want to get the epidemic under control. Today, not tomorrow, because all experts agree that the number of infections will continue to rise in the fall,” Reisner said. “So what is politics waiting for?”

Vice-President Dietmar Baumgartner added: “We need stricter measures, because people with a complex course of Covid-19 are not almost exclusively vaccinated, or although they are vaccinated, they cannot generate antibodies or very few antibodies due to a previous illness. Vice President Ronald Gallup emphasized that “the current and other mutations of the coronavirus, which are more contagious and cause severe disease, will certainly infect all non-immune people in the near future.”