At the university hospital Salzburg, intensive care physician Andreas Kokofer observed an increase in Covid-19 infection with a grim inevitable. With cases reached daily record high of 15,809 on November 19, Kokofer and colleagues were mentally preparing for an influx of patients.
The state of Salzburg is a particular hotspot of the current outbreak, with 1,731 cases per 100,000 population over the past seven days, compared with 1,110 in the whole of Austria. With the situation expected to worsen in the coming weeks, hospital directors across the region have begun to consider the possibility of making tough decisions about whether Covid-19 patients will qualify. for intensive care, and which disease would not.
So how did Austria get into such a predicament, while many countries are strategizing to get out of the pandemic? A variety of reasons, from reduced immunity due to a cultural and social storm, to longstanding political divisions, have led many Austrians to reject a Covid-19 vaccine.
Crucially, what Austria is going through could soon hit the scores of other countries — and all the while balancing the numbers precariously. As the crisis threatened to spiral out of control, Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg was forced to make a decision that seemed unthinkable just weeks ago. Since Monday, the country has entered a a month-long nationwide lockdown, opening up restrictions that many hoped would go away. Just like in 2020, Austrians have been asked to stay at home and only go out for essential purposes. Schools remain open, although parents have been asked to keep their children home if possible.
The decision was met with fury in some parts of the country. Last weekend, 40,000 people down the street in Vienna, some carrying provocative banners referring to Schallenberg with Nazi leaders.
But while doctors say the current crisis cannot be compared to the early days of the pandemic, they remain deeply concerned about how the health care system will cope in the coming weeks. “The situation is tense,” said Kokofer. “We had to cancel planned heart and cancer surgeries. The lockdown gives us some hope that the numbers will reach a plateau. “
While these new restrictions have taken many in Austria by surprise, experts say the crisis has been simmering for some time. According to Eva Schernhammer, an epidemiologist at the Medical University of Vienna, the onset of winter and people moving indoors has made it easier for Covid-19 to spread. Immunity levels also began to wane in people who were vaccinated earlier in the year, making them more vulnerable to the Delta variant.
Schernhammer suspects that this is an issue specific to Austria, which has the lowest vaccination rate in Western Europe: 65.7% of the population is fully vaccinated, a lower rate than the UK ( 68.7%), France, Italy, and Germany. Meanwhile, Portugal has one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe, with 86.9% of the population fully vaccinated. As of November 22, the daily number of Covid-19 cases per million people is 145 in Portugal, compared with 1,527 in Austria.
