The Fort Worth Press - Austria Covid-19 'gargle' tests in expansion drive

USD -
AED 3.673042
AFN 68.112673
ALL 94.198378
AMD 389.366092
ANG 1.801814
AOA 913.000367
ARS 1003.735016
AUD 1.538462
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.70397
BAM 1.877057
BBD 2.018523
BDT 119.468305
BGN 1.87679
BHD 0.376794
BIF 2953.116752
BMD 1
BND 1.347473
BOB 6.908201
BRL 5.801041
BSD 0.99976
BTN 84.384759
BWP 13.658045
BYN 3.27175
BYR 19600
BZD 2.015164
CAD 1.39805
CDF 2871.000362
CHF 0.89358
CLF 0.035441
CLP 977.925332
CNY 7.243041
CNH 7.25914
COP 4389.749988
CRC 509.237487
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 105.825615
CZK 24.326204
DJF 178.031575
DKK 7.158304
DOP 60.252411
DZD 134.221412
EGP 49.650175
ERN 15
ETB 122.388982
EUR 0.95985
FJD 2.27595
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.798053
GEL 2.740391
GGP 0.789317
GHS 15.795384
GIP 0.789317
GMD 71.000355
GNF 8617.496041
GTQ 7.717261
GYD 209.15591
HKD 7.78445
HNL 25.264168
HRK 7.133259
HTG 131.234704
HUF 395.000354
IDR 15943.55
ILS 3.70204
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.43625
IQD 1309.659773
IRR 42075.000352
ISK 139.680386
JEP 0.789317
JMD 159.268679
JOD 0.709104
JPY 154.770385
KES 129.468784
KGS 86.503799
KHR 4025.145161
KMF 472.503794
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1404.510383
KWD 0.30785
KYD 0.833149
KZT 499.179423
LAK 21959.786938
LBP 89526.368828
LKR 290.973655
LRD 180.450118
LSL 18.040693
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.882192
MAD 10.057392
MDL 18.23504
MGA 4666.25078
MKD 59.052738
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 8.015644
MRU 39.77926
MUR 46.850378
MVR 15.460378
MWK 1733.576467
MXN 20.428504
MYR 4.468039
MZN 63.910377
NAD 18.040693
NGN 1696.703725
NIO 36.786794
NOK 11.072604
NPR 135.016076
NZD 1.714237
OMR 0.384846
PAB 0.99976
PEN 3.790969
PGK 4.025145
PHP 58.939038
PKR 277.626662
PLN 4.16352
PYG 7804.59715
QAR 3.646048
RON 4.778204
RSD 112.294256
RUB 104.308748
RWF 1364.748788
SAR 3.754429
SBD 8.383555
SCR 13.699038
SDG 601.503676
SEK 11.036204
SGD 1.346604
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.730371
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 571.332598
SRD 35.494038
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.748021
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 18.034455
THB 34.480369
TJS 10.647152
TMT 3.5
TND 3.17616
TOP 2.342104
TRY 34.552504
TTD 6.790153
TWD 32.583504
TZS 2659.340659
UAH 41.35995
UGX 3694.035222
UYU 42.516436
UZS 12825.951341
VES 46.55914
VND 25419
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 629.547483
XAG 0.031938
XAU 0.000369
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.760497
XOF 629.547483
XPF 114.458467
YER 249.925037
ZAR 18.15566
ZMK 9001.203587
ZMW 27.617448
ZWL 321.999592
  • SCS

    0.2300

    13.27

    +1.73%

  • RELX

    0.9900

    46.75

    +2.12%

  • BTI

    0.4000

    37.38

    +1.07%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    33.96

    +0.77%

  • RBGPF

    59.2400

    59.24

    +100%

  • CMSC

    0.0320

    24.672

    +0.13%

  • CMSD

    0.0150

    24.46

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.2200

    62.35

    -0.35%

  • BCC

    3.4200

    143.78

    +2.38%

  • BCE

    0.0900

    26.77

    +0.34%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    6.79

    -0.15%

  • AZN

    1.3700

    65.63

    +2.09%

  • VOD

    0.1323

    8.73

    +1.52%

  • BP

    0.2000

    29.72

    +0.67%

  • NGG

    1.0296

    63.11

    +1.63%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    13.21

    -0.15%

Austria Covid-19 'gargle' tests in expansion drive
Austria Covid-19 'gargle' tests in expansion drive

Austria Covid-19 'gargle' tests in expansion drive

Throughout the day, vans loaded with bags full of Covid PCR test kits arrive at a Vienna laboratory, currently analysing an average of 370,000 tests per day.

Text size:

With more than 144 million tests carried out since the beginning of the pandemic, the Alpine nation of nine million is a leader in Covid testing.

But with the latest Omicron wave sending cases spiralling, health experts and policymakers are asking if widespread testing -- paid by taxpayers' money -- is necessary and efficient.

The Lifebrain laboratory, which accounts for a major part of the country's testing, has been expanding rapidly since it began work just over a year ago on the sprawling ground of a public hospital on Vienna's outskirts.

Under the "Alles Gurgelt" ("Everybody Gargles") system, Viennese can register online, go to a drugstore, pick up a test kit, gargle at home and then drop the kit back and wait for an email with results within 24 hours.

"It's extremely low-threshold," Lifebrain CEO Michael Havel tells AFP.

- Better screening -

Vienna came up with the system in late 2020 to offer better screening for the capital's two million people.

Havel's laboratory, which analyses the "Everybody Gargles" tests, now employs 1,800 people full time and can analyse up to 800,000 tests a day and run 24/7.

A third of its workforce were hired in the last two months alone. The city pays six euros ($6.80) per test to drugstores and others giving them out.

At the laboratory, workers from dozens of countries drag the bags full of test kits through the aisles of the laboratory set up in rooms in several old buildings on the hospital campus.

Scanning the bar codes on the test tubes one-by-one, they place the tubes into trays for analysis in designated high-tech machines. Computers eventually spit out results saying which batches contain positive Covid samples.

Currently mainly receiving tests from Vienna, Havel says he is prepared to expand capacities within Austria. Before the pandemic Lifebrain, which Havel co-founded, was most active providing laboratory work in Italy.

"Everybody Gargles" tests are already part of the rigorous testing regime in schools -- with students tested several times a week -- and Vienna is now looking to expand the system into kindergartens too.

- 'Gas and break at same time' -

Ulrich Elling, a researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who helped develop the gargling method, said the "Alles Gurgelt" system was "extremely efficient".

"So far this test strategy has made a lot of sense... (but) now with Omicron, everything is different. If you go for 'herd immunity,' then the question is to what extent it makes sense to step on the gas and brake at the same time," he told AFP.

"In autumn I fear that the next wave will come our way... I think testing will only not be necessary anymore once the pandemic is over," he says.

F.Garcia--TFWP