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Vienna – Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen took advantage of the press conference after the visit of his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Selenskyj yesterday to issue a warning: “I call on all people in Austria to adhere to precautionary measures to that we can keep the pandemic under control during the next flu season. Be able to maintain control ”. One must “do everything possible to avoid a second blockage.” This would be “extremely detrimental” to the economy and employment.
Van der Bellen’s appeal takes place in the context of the latest decision by the expert commission to significantly adjust the corona traffic light risk assessments. Seven cities and districts now glow “orange” (“high risk”), in addition to the cities of Innsbruck and Kufstein, these are Vienna, Dornbirn, Bludenz, as well as Mödling and Neunkirchen in Lower Austria. Another 35 districts were set to “yellow” (“medium risk”), including Landeck, Innsbruck-Land, and Schwaz.
📽 Video | “Corona Traffic Light: Anschober promises more clarity”
No hardening of measures
Hardening of risk assessment does not go hand in hand with hardening of measures. Last week, experts recommended the reintroduction of the mask requirement in all commerce, although large parts of the country were still set to “green” and only a few cities and districts to “yellow.”
Now everything remains in schools and events in the regions “orange” as “yellow”. The Crown Commission’s recommendations say literally: “No further action is required for the education sector, as there is currently no indication that the education sector is substantially involved in the spread.”
Corona-Ampel: Risiko nach Bezirken.
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The Crown Commission and politics have thus said goodbye to the original concept of the stoplight. The hazard color was planned to follow measurements that were largely set in advance. These measures were also available on the website of the Ministry of Health for the Corona traffic light.
There is no doubt about that. “One is the change of traffic lights, the other are decisions of the federal government,” Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) said yesterday. The list of measures has also been removed from the Internet.
Consultations with the “orange” regions
Today Kurz wants to discuss the situation with representatives of the “orange” cities and districts. The Crown Commission has made at least “recommendations” for this: Nursing facilities and hospitals must be better protected. More employees must be tested for the virus in healthcare and care facilities, high-risk companies and educational institutions. Experts also see a weak point in the open air markets, where they ask for more prevention.
The experts also propose devoting more attention to the protection of the elderly “in intergenerational family associations”. This recommendation is in response to numerous infections after family reunions.
And the sixth recommendation: “Restrict events in closed societies without a security concept”, a reaction to private parties where the virus has spread.
This is not scaremongering, it is simply a wake-up call.
Rudolf Anschober (Minister of Health)
The Health Minister, Rudolf Anschober (Greens), does not want the experts’ assessment to be understood as scaremongering or testimony, but as a “wake-up call” and a call to the population to “participate again in the intensity and breadth that made us so successful in the spring “- This means washing your hands, keeping your distance, and wearing a mask.
📽 Video | Orange traffic light: effects must be defined
Fight for new crown laws
Meanwhile, parties in parliament are struggling with new crown laws, which should also provide a basis for traffic lights. Additionally, the coalition wants to create a new basis for possible entry bans and curfews in case the pandemic worsens: the constitutional court struck down the lockdown regulations in the spring of summer.
The goal of the ÖVP and the Greens is to pass these laws in the National Council next week. The Federal Council, in which SPÖ and FPÖ have a joint majority, could seriously delay the project. Unlike the FPÖ, the SPÖ at least offers negotiations. (sabl)
