2,485 new infections in Austria, 218 deaths; Tyrolean doctors fear an avalanche of slopes

In Lower Austria, the number of coronavirus-related deaths has risen from eleven to 715 today. According to information from the office of the State Health Councilor Ulrike Königsberger-Ludwig (SPÖ), 375 new infections were reported. 12,606 contact persons were also in quarantine, 1,427 fewer than the previous day.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been infected with the corona virus. Macron tested positive for the corona virus, according to the French presidential office. More on this shortly.

Due to late reports from Vienna, the number of deaths per crown skyrocketed to 218 in one day.

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The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Netherlands, and Belgium urge their citizens not to cross their common borders if possible. “Do not carry the virus across the border,” says NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet in a joint video message.

“You really should only cross the border when necessary,” underlined Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. “This is the only way to defeat the virus,” added his Belgian colleague Alexander De Croo. “Blijf thuis! Rester chez soi! Stay home!” Appeal the three politicians.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will begin its investigation into the origin of the coronavirus in China early next year. It could confirm that an international team of experts will travel to China in January, WHO spokesman Hedinn Halldorsson said in Geneva on Wednesday. He confirmed reports that the mission was about to begin.

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Some vials contain up to two additional doses, which could increase the supply by 40 percent. Pfizer and BioNTech have not yet made a recommendation.

New Zealand wants to support its neighboring countries in the South Pacific with the purchase of corona vaccines.

The government will provide NZ $ 75 million (€ 44 million) to help several island states in the region gain access to safe vaccines, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said on Friday. “Pacific countries have worked hard to maintain or eradicate Covid-19 and New Zealand is committed to supporting them,” Mahuta said.

In Germany, almost 27,000 new corona virus infections were recorded in one day. As the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced on Thursday morning, citing information from health authorities, 26,923 new cases of infection were registered in 24 hours. The record is 29,875 new infections and it was recorded last Friday. According to the most recent information from the RKI, the number of deaths per corona increased in one day by 698 to a total of 24,125. By Wednesday, the number of deaths recorded daily had peaked at 952 cases.

The total number of infections with the new corona virus in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic rose to 1,406,161 according to information from RKI on Thursday. The number of those who have recovered is therefore around 1,047,600.

The so-called seven-day incidence nationwide was 179.2 on Thursday, according to the institute. This is the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants during this period. The seven-day incidence is a fundamental measure for the imposition and relaxation of measures against the spread of the new virus. The goal of the German government is to reduce the incidence below 50.

“If you have a headache and you take an aspirin, it usually helps, but not with a corona headache,” Austrian skier Nicole Schmidhofer said before the late start of the speed in Val d’Isere this weekend.

A trip to the world of sport: The start of the Australian Open on February 8, three weeks late, is official. This is how it emerges from the ATP Tour calendar published on Wednesday for the first weeks of the 2021 tennis year. More here:

“Gandalf” actor Ian McKellen (81) was vaccinated against the coronavirus and has been “euphoric” ever since. “It is painless and practical,” said the British actor (“The Lord of the Rings”), as did the news agency Pennsylvania reported Thursday night. “I am very happy to have received the vaccine.” McKellen asked people to follow his example.

“It has to be, not just for you, but for the people who are important to you. You do it for society,” he said. “It is a special day, I feel euphoric.” Britain started mass vaccination just over a week ago.

The online registration system for the free, permanent antigen tests that began in Tyrol on December 19 was temporarily canceled due to the great rush on Wednesday night. More than 25,000 accesses within minutes of activation caused a system overload. The bugs have now been fixed and online registration is possible again, the status announced in a broadcast Thursday morning.

The capabilities of the system have been greatly expanded. All those who have already registered and received confirmation through the web tool do not need to register again, he said. As of Thursday morning, there were already about 2,900 records for antigen testing.

But there is still enough capacity to test before the Christmas holidays, he said. The Tirol control center, responsible for the online registration tool, apologized to all those affected for the temporary system failures and inconvenience.

A blockade threatens again in Italy: the government wants to tighten the measures during Christmas for fear of a third wave; some regions and trade clash.

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There is no coordinating person with a high level of professional competence, credibility and charisma, who clearly explains to the population what it is about, says Univ-Prof. Dr. Kurt Widhalm in his guest comment.

In South Korea, the number of deaths from coronavirus rises to 22, a new record for the country. 1,014 new infections were reported in 24 hours, 423 of them in the densely populated capital Seoul.

There were also hamster purchases there for fear of stricter restrictions. South Korea has long been considered an excellent example in the fight against the pandemic and managed to contain the virus in spring and summer. Now the country is experiencing the strongest wave of infections to date. South Korea has a total of 46,453 infections and 634 deaths.

The Japanese capital, Tokyo, registers a new record with 822 new infections. According to the authorities, the health system is so overloaded that the alert level for medical capabilities has been raised to the highest of four levels.

All free resources have been exhausted, said a medical representative. The number of patients with Covid 19 must decrease.

A study shows that more than half of Austrians have lost their anticipation for Christmas due to the pandemic.

Ecuador and Chile have granted emergency approval to the vaccine developed by the Mainz company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer.

A plane with the first 20,000 doses of the vaccine will land in Chile this month, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera said in a televised address. In Ecuador, the Minister of Health, Juan Carlos Zevallos, announced that the first 50,000 doses of Biontech / Pfizer vaccines would arrive in January.

The Chamber of Commerce expects at least 50,000 requests for funding from the Hardship Fund by the ninth “Crown month” (Nov. 16-Dec. 15, 2020) these days.

These can be requested from yesterday. So far, 810 million euros have been disbursed, supporting 207,000 freelancers. In the last month (October 16 – November 15) the completion rate was almost one hundred percent. On average, 1,200 euros were financed per person per month, according to the chamber.

The loss of demand related to the crown in restaurants and hotels has hit farms hard this year, including producers of hogs, cattle and wine.

“It was a challenging year for Austrian agriculture and this period created uncertainty for many family businesses,” said Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger.

Today Agrar Markt Austria (AMA) is paying around € 1.2 billion in agricultural funds for the 2020 application year as planned. These are 100 percent of the direct payments from the farmers and 75 percent of the funds for the agri-environment program and the mountain area compensation allocation that goes to farms. The rest will be paid at the end of April 2021.