While the first cases of the new corona variant “Centaurus” were registered in Salzburg, the federal government is holding on to the end of the quarantine. According to experts, this is epidemiologically logical.
Spain, Switzerland or Sweden have lifted them: the obligation to go into quarantine if you have a corona infection. In any case, Greece gives infected holidaymakers their complete freedom. In June, Israel considered abolishing mandatory isolation, but decided against it because of the increasing numbers. Other countries, which are quite liberal in terms of corona rules, such as Portugal, continue to adhere to the quarantine.
Quarantine debate out
According to a draft from the Ministry of Health that has been circulating since Thursday, Austria should lift the quarantine rules on August 1. “In any case, it is not expected that we will endanger the health system with the abolition of quarantine”, complexity researcher Peter Klimek finds this step on Ö1 to be justified, at least from an epidemiological point of view. In return, however, he advocates reintroducing the general obligation to wear masks indoors. If, as foreseen in the design, only infected people were to wear masks, this could lead to stigmatization. And the fear of it in turn ensures that contagious people certainly do not comply with the mask obligation.
The Chamber of Commerce fears that people with symptoms will go to work for fear of losing their job. Until now, this was not automatically possible due to the quarantine. From a purely legal point of view, according to AK lawyer Philipp Brokes, no one should be forced to work sick anyway – but in reality this has been the case for years.
This is especially dangerous for patients at risk, as they have no longer been entitled to release for fear of contamination since the end of June. The AK fears conflicts within the workforce or between employees and employers.
Headwinds from the SPÖ and Vienna
One of the reasons for the quarantine is the impending overload of healthcare facilities if too many employees are isolated at the same time. But that is exactly what the SPÖ fears when infected people work and infect colleagues and patients. Viennese SPÖ councilor Peter Hacker refers to the WHO: They have just explained that measures such as ramping up the test systems, wearing more masks indoors and on public transport and tracing contacts are necessary.
Source: Krone
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