80 percent of the population took part in the groundbreaking investigation.
Now finally there are figures for the Corona hotspot Ischgl. For the first time, an extremely affected community has been almost completely examined.
The results were awesome: 42.4 percent of the population may have had a corona infection – they have antibodies in their blood. But: In the usual corona tests, only 15 percent showed a positive corona test result.
79 percent of the population between April 21 and 27 participated in this study. This was 1,473 subjects (1,259 adults, 214 children) during the quarantine phase.
© APA / JAKOB GRUBER
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Everything started in this restaurant.
The reliability of the tests should be 100 percent thanks to a three-stage process. “So there are no false positive results,” says study director Dorothee von Laer. The proportion of subjects who tested positive for antibodies against Corona was thus six times higher than those who had previously been positive with Corona test. The rate of officially reported cases is only 15 percent.
“So 85 percent went through the infection unnoticed,” von Laer explains. “About half of this percentage had symptoms, but often mild symptoms, so that they would have been felt as a cold.” This raises the question: How honest were the test subjects? At any rate, von Laer assumes that the virus has been circulating in Ischgl at least from the second half of February.
Despite the high proportion of antibodies among the Ischglers, according to the doctor, it should not be assumed that there is herd immunity.
The Ischgl report: The population did not notice anything about corona infection
AUSTRIA reporter Daniel Liebl reports directly from the ski resort Ischgl.
Eerie calm in what is now the most famous ski resort in the world. No one can be seen on the streets, only individual motorcycles with Carinthian license plates rattle past. It is a sunny day, there is still snow on top of the mountain peaks. Construction sites are currently dominating the townscape below.
First of all we meet the tourism director Andreas Steibl. Corona antibodies were also found in his blood. “I didn’t feel any symptoms at the time,” he says. Regarding tourism, he says: “It has to go on, we are already considering how we will start the season.”
Next we visit Thomas Wolf. He runs “Wolf’s Aparts”. The hotelier is one of the 42.4% in whom corona antibodies have been detected (see left). He absolutely cannot say when he was infected, he did not notice it: “At the time, we only thought we would survive if we got it.”
After a financially unsuccessful season, all he can do is look ahead: “I hope for the summer season. The bookings run differently than usual, people book at short notice, we hope for last-minute decisions. “
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