Two Austrias
An argument over free testing is further evidence of a growing schism between Vienna and the rest of the country over pandemic policy
Servus!
The number of daily confirmed new COVID-19 cases has finally turned a corner, and the trend is headed downwards. By the time you read this, state and federal leaders will have concluded today’s summit on the future of Austria’s COVID-19 countermeasures. Up for debate are the vaccine mandate, due to come into effect on March 16, the 2G and 3G rule, the mask mandate, and free coronavirus testing, currently financed through March 31.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Austria has conducted close to 150 million coronavirus tests. Per 1,000 people, Austria has carried out around 16,500 tests, compared to 6,500 in the United Kingdom and 2,400 in the United States. In Vienna, around 300,000 PCR test results are registered every day. All of these tests—be they rapid or, as we’ve moved through the pandemic, PCR—have been made available to the public for free at great cost to the federal government. Since March 2020, the government has spent €2.6 billion on tests1.
Both the cost of the tests and the nature of the Omicron variant has put the government in mind to abolish free coronavirus testing. We have a vaccine that’s free and that works, the country’s minister for the economy and digitalization Margarete Schramböck said over the weekend, and “in the long run, it won’t be possible to explain to the majority” who have had the vaccine “why they should keep paying for tests for the minority.” Her call was echoed on Monday by her boss, the chancellor Karl Nehammer, with indications being that, were free testing abolished, the vaccinated would be charged a lower rate for a test than the unvaccinated.
The state government in Vienna, however, sees things differently. Vienna still has the most comprehensive PCR testing network in the country, and its health secretary Peter Hacker wants to keep testing free. His case is that we can only get a grip on the pandemic and understand who does and does not possess the virus, who should and should not be in quarantine, if we continue to test. Hacker also said that the 3G rule in the workplace could not be properly enforced if workers have to pay for their COVID tests. A recent poll found that 50 percent of Austrians favor keeping coronavirus testing free, while 48 percent believe people should be charged for it.
Hacker’s stance is further evidence of a schism which has been growing for months between social democratic Vienna and People’s Party (ÖVP)-run states like Salzburg, Tyrol, Vorarlberg, and Lower Austria over coronavirus pandemic management. Vienna’s mayor Michael Ludwig wants to see the country’s PCR testing network expanded. The governor of Upper Austria, Thomas Stelzer, has questioned the usefulness of existing rules regarding testing and quarantine. His counterpart in Salzburg, Wilfried Haslauer, is looking ahead to a possible so-called “Freedom Day” when most or all existing coronavirus regulations will be abolished.
Vienna’s PCR testing network accounts for 70 percent of total federal government outlay on such tests. It would be nigh-on impossible for Vienna to finance its current testing regime without federal government help. Without this obstacle, however, it is not difficult to imagine a country cleaved in twain between Vienna, which would have more vigorous coronavirus restrictions in combination with free PCR testing, and the rest of the country, where tests would have to be paid for but no restrictions were placed on the great unvaccinated. This would make Austria a laboratory; only then would we see whose approach was the correct one.
Bis bald!
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The head of Carinthia’s intelligence services, Stephan Tauschitz, has resigned. In 2008 and 2010, Tauschitz took part in commemorations honoring fallen soldiers—including members of the Waffen-SS—in Ulrichsberg. The gathering regularly attracts neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists.
Ottawa Meets Vienna
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Based on a previous report, I previously wrote that “the government is believed to be spent close to €2 billion on tests.” The current figure is €2.6 billion. I regret the error.