Malice between Vienna and Berlin

The ski resort has the highest known infection rate. Austria wants to bring the tourists back as quickly as possible – and responds thinly to criticism from outside.

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More than 42 percent of the Ischgl population were infected with Sars-CoV-2 by mid-April. This was the result of an antibody study by the University of Innsbruck presented on Thursday with 1473 people from the village. It is the highest infection rate of a corona hotspot that has been published so far: Brooklyn reported 30 percent, the ski resort of Val Gardena in South Tyrol 27 and the carnival cluster in Heinsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia 15. However, there is still no herd immunity in Ischgl that affects the location from a second corona wave. The spread would probably be slower.

“The Ischglers are tough”

More than 80 percent of those who now had a Sars-CoV-2 infection according to the positive antibody test had not previously been known as a corona case, emphasized study director Dorothee von Laer. A good half of these unrecognized infected people would have had symptoms, albeit often only mildly. But apparently they either didn’t get access to a test – or didn’t see a doctor. “The Ischglers are tough,” said the virologist. But it had also been shown that even in a well-known hotspot, too little testing had been done in the high phase of the pandemic.

According to the investigation, the most important measure to curb the virus in the place was to close the bars and other après-ski meeting points on March 10th. The mass departure of the guests three days later, on the other hand, had less impact on the infection in Ischgl itself.

For Europe, however, the rash departure, which was hardly coordinated by the authorities, had fatal consequences. Hundreds of guests brought the virus home from Ischgl, causing tens of thousands of infections. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy calculated at the end of May that almost half of all Sars-CoV-2 infections in Germany were caused by Ischgl travelers. In Denmark it was at least a third of all Corona cases by the end of March and in Sweden a sixth.

An uncomfortable topic

The governments in Austria and Tyrol, in both cases led by the conservative ÖVP coalitions with the Greens, insist that no mistakes have been made. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz reacted irritably to questions about Ischgl, spoke of unnecessary blame and even announced that the virus might have been brought from Munich to Tyrol. The genome analyzes of the researchers at the CeMM Institute in Vienna clearly refuted this thesis: the virus sequences decoded in Munich at the end of January were not found in Ischgl.

The education in Austria is getting slow. After all, there has been an investigation committee in Tyrol since the beginning of June. First of all, should a retired judge with a clear proximity to the ÖVP take over their leadership. Only violent protests led to Roland Rohrer being chosen as a more independent person. The commission should clarify by Octoberwhether Tyrol reacted too late and carelessly to the first Covid 19 cases.

The Austrian consumer protection association is even convinced that the authorities acted illegally. His class action lawsuit according to «Handelsblatt» by mid-May, 5400 people from 45 countries were already connected. The great public and legal pressure – the Tyrolean public prosecutor is also conducting an investigation – Obviously, Austrian politics does not encourage an aggressive analysis.

Abroad, however, the demonstrative return to normality has been poorly received. So the Germans have little joy in the fact that Austria is a 40 million euro, strongly oriented towards the big neighboring country Promotional campaign for summer tourism started: 37 percent of the guests in the country came from Germany in 2019. The focus is on the safety of tourists and the untouched nature. “It’s going uphill” (sic!) Is the slogan in Tyrol, and Ischgl is also trying to get away from the Halligalli image.

Gütersloh or Ischgl?

The Tönnies case provides for new hatefulness in the bilateral relationship. In response to the corona outbreak in the meat factory, Austria issued a travel warning for North Rhine-Westphalia. Prime Minister Armin Laschet criticized this on Wednesday as an overreaction – and added: “I don’t think Gütersloh is worse than Ischgl.” At a meeting with the Austrian Minister of the Interior in Vienna, his German colleague Horst Seehofer asked the government to issue travel warnings for regional hotspots instead of entire federal states.

Carinthia has already recommended tourists from North Rhine-Westphalia to postpone their vacation in Austria. The state does not go as far than some regions within Germany: Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria pronounced a ban on accommodation or a quarantine arrangement for people from the heavily affected areas.

If there are new virus outbreaks in Ischgl or elsewhere as a result of the travel waves, no one of the already infected may weigh themselves in safety. It is currently completely unclear how long someone is protected from a second virus attack after an initial infection.