- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says 'very violent' Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Guardians maul Tigers, miracle Mets rally in MLB series openers
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Thousands march for Palestinians ahead of Oct 7 anniversary
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Toddler crushed to death in migrant Channel crossing
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
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.
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.
Y.Nakamura--AMWN