Whether it actually happens that way remains to be seen, but in the ZIB2 made Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein sit up and take notice: When asked whether there would actually be penalties after the passage of the mandatory vaccination law from March 15, the department head said that he assumed that the law would be implemented. So a yes to the threatened penalties.
At the same time, the Green politician defended the opening steps decided on Wednesday. Despite the high number of infections, hospital occupancy rates are stable, the forecasts will confirm this in the future and the reproduction factor has fallen below 1.
Expensive tests
As before in Puls24interview, Mückstein spoke out in favor of a new test strategy from April. In the private broadcaster, he said that the corona test system had cost around 2.6 billion euros so far, so you have to ask yourself “whether that’s still necessary,” says the department head, who opposed the ORF for paid tests from April.
In the “ZIB2” the Minister of Health stated that tests of symptomatic patients or official tests will remain free of charge. This is needed to assess the epidemiological situation. In addition, there will be tests that cost something, says Mückstein: “But I don’t think that we will differentiate between vaccinated and unvaccinated people in terms of test costs.” Which means there is no incentive to get vaccinated.
“Other countries envy us for our test system,” says the Minister of Health. The tests, which have been rolled out widely, are about breaking chains of infection and keeping track of things. That makes sense, especially in a wave. With the numbers going down, if it’s just “do I want to know” – even though you’ve been vaccinated three times and have no symptoms – “we may not need it anymore”. That’s why GECKO was commissioned to develop a new system. “By April we will have a new testing strategy,” announced the Minister of Health.