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ANA Meeting 2021: Program is available here!
Online registration closes on 19 September, no on-site registration possible!

Hygiene Concept for the ANA Meeting 2021

In times of the pandemic, the ANA meeting can only take place under strict health and safety conditions. As a responsible host, the health of our participants and partners has the highest priority.

Moreover, we also rely on your caution in order to protect yourself and the other participants. The hygiene concept and all relevant COVID-19 issues will be communicated via email, our homepage, as well as placed on the conference website.

Authorized COVID-19 Appointee:

Petra Scholze and Isabella Sarto-Jackson are ANA´s authorized COVID-19 appointees. The appointees will be on site during the whole event and can be contacted via email office@austrian-neuroscience.at or via the COVID-19 hotline +43 677 606 404 0380.

Keep distance:

Please maintain a minimum distance of 1.5 meters between you and other participants in the registration area, the poster and exhibition hall, and the buffet area. In the lecture halls, the minimum distance of 1.5 meters cannot be maintained and therefore photos (or short videos) will be taken at the beginning of each session by ANA staff to allow for contact tracing. This information will be used solely for contact tracing in case of a COVID-19 infection. This means that by participating in the ANA Meeting, you give permission that ANA can take photos/videos of you. The material acquired for contact tracing will be kept only for the period prescribed by the authorities and will be deleted thereafter.

Mouth and nose protection:

We strongly recommend participants to wear FFP2 masks rather than surgical masks. Participants are requested to wear their masks inside the premises of the venue. Violations can lead to the exclusion of persons. Exceptions to the mask mandate are allowed in the buffet area while eating or drinking, as well as for speakers after they have reached the front of the auditorium. Also, masks can be removed outside, in the smoking area, the terrace, and the roofed entry area.

Registration requirement:

Prior online registration is mandatory. Only previously registered participants without symptoms of illness ("flu signs") will be admitted. Participants also confirm that they have not been in contact with a corona patient who tested positive in the past 14 days. Please bring your digital COVID certificates (vaccination certificate, certificate of recovery [< 180 days] or negative PCR test certificate [<72 hrs]) to the conference by means of “Grüner Pass” (https://gruenerpass.gv.at/en/). All digital certificates will be checked upon entry.

We strongly advise our participants to get vaccinated. If for any reason, you cannot get vaccinated, it is mandatory to show a negative PCR test certificate no older than 72 hours at the registration desk. Without vaccination certificate or certificate of recovery, you must take an additional COVID-19 PCR test on the first day of the conference before 1.00 pm at your own expense (EUR 35,-) to ensure non-infectivity covering all 3 days of the conference. PCR test kits will be available on site and test results should be obtained on the evening of the same day.

Suspected cases:

Symptomatic persons are not allowed to enter the venue. If symptoms occur while participating in the meeting or if your PCR test comes back positive, please inform us immediately via the hotline +43 677 606 404 0380 or via email: office@austrian-neuroscience.at (Petra Scholze and Isabella Sarto-Jackson). After informing us, please leave the venue immediately (or if not yet at the venue, please stay in your hotel room or apartment) and avoid contact with other people. Contact the Austrian Covid-hotline (telephone number 1450) and its healthcare professionals will clarify which measures you should take. If necessary, a team of the Red Cross or the Workers’ Samaritan Federation will come to your accommodation and you will be tested. The Covid-appointees of ANA will support the contact tracing of people you had contact with during the meeting.

Contact Tracing:

In order to trace possible chains of infection, recorded material (photos or films) from individual sessions will used by the Covid-appointees to assess putative contact persons. Alternatively, for sessions with seat assignments, electronic registration records will be consulted. In case of a confirmed COVID-19 infection, the appointees will contact all persons seated within a radius of 5 meters of the infected person.

To this end, please make sure that your registration contains correct contact data (first name and surname, full address and telephone number).

Hygiene measures:

The facility management of the venue ensures that all hand contact surfaces are cleaned before the start of the event (in particular doorknobs, handrails, buttons in the elevator, table surfaces, etc.). Cleaning work takes place in the morning of each day of the event.

We remind all participants to clean and disinfect their hands frequently and keep the sneeze & cough label. During the entire duration of the event, sufficient disinfectant dispensers will be clearly visible installed at all entrances and exits and critical points of the event location.

Disinfecting tissues will be available for disinfecting microphones in the lecture halls.

Greetings from a distance:

We ask you to refrain from hugs and handshakes. As the organizer, we ensure that the hygiene regulations, the applicable distance rules and the other occupational safety standards SARS-CoV-2 are taken into account for the entire duration of the event. We do not recommend people with a higher risk for a severe COVID-19 disease course (diseases of the respiratory system) to take part in our event.

We, as the organizers, inform participants and staff in writing about all the protective measures taken that must be observed by all those involved during the event as well as during the preparation and dismantling phases of the event.

We point out the main rules of conduct applicable according to the hygiene concept at all neuralgic points of the event location by means of information sheets (at entrances and exits, sanitary facilities, and the event area).

Regular ventilation and increased cleaning cycles:

The event rooms will always be well ventilated. The facility management of the venue ensures that the ventilation will be switched on to maximum.

Venue / space utilization:

At the venue, distance definition and restrictions are differentiated according to the following areas:

1. Lecture halls

2. Gathering areas

3. Movement areas

The venue will be divided into areas in order to achieve a controlled distribution of the participants. Area overload, traffic jams or a high density of people will be avoided. For this purpose, we carried out a capacity planning in advance (query processing of sessions).

1. In the lecture hall with fixed rows of chairs, we will record seating arrangements by photo or filming. For the public lecture as well as the satellite symposium (when admission of external guests is allowed), seats will be assigned by the organizers on a first come first serve basis.

Seat numbering, as well as photographic or filmic documentation, will allow to track possible chains of infection if necessary. In case of exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 appointee will contact all persons seated within a radius of 5 meters of the infected person.

2. For gathering areas in which participants do not have fixed seats (such catering area, poster and exhibition area, sanitary facilities), we recommend to maintain a minimum distance of 1.5 m between people present and ensure that the maximum number of people permitted for the respective area is adhered to. During poster sessions, participants will be requested to wear mouth/nose protection. Posters will be spaced out generously and poster sessions organized to minimize grouping of participants.

Admission to the venue and poster sessions will take place in wide and open spaces, i.e. the foyer of the building and the open gallery on the first floor. 

 3. In areas where queues can form (e.g., admission area and catering stations), we ask participants to help us to keep distance. Catered food and drinks can be consumed in the buffet area (enclosed) or outside at the terrace or the roofed entrance area.

Areas for smokers will also be outside of the building at the roofed entrance area where the minimum distance of 1.5 m can be guaranteed.

Invitation management:

All payments will be settled in advance and electronically. Also, confirmations of participation will be sent electronically after the meeting. 3G checks will be done on each day of the meeting. Color coded name tags will indicate that the participant underwent the 3G check.

Inlet / outlet:

As part of the entry and exit controls, it is ensured that the maximum number of people permitted in the respective areas is not exceeded for longer than briefly. This is monitored by staff.

The public lecture as well as the satellite symposium will be accessible through a separate entrance door avoiding contact with other participants of the ANA Meeting.

Catering:

28 – 30 September 2021

15th ANA Meeting at the IST Austria, September 24th-26th, 2017

Highlights of the Meeting:

• Excellent Plenary Lectures by Andreas Luethi, Gilles Laurent, Michael Häusser, Ghislaine Dehaene‐Lambertz, Fiona Doetsch, and Claire Wyart, covering a broad spectrum of topics
• Excellent Symposia organized by Wulf Haubensak, Thomas Klausberger, Bernhard Flucher, and Gašper Tkačik
• Excellent Oral and vivid Poster Sessions
• Plenty opportunity for social interaction