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On Sunday, Kurz put Austrians in the mood for a “challenging fall and winter” in a video. On Monday there will be a press conference on the tightening of the crown’s measures.
In light of Corona’s new daily record numbers, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) on Sunday urged Austrians to “stand together to keep the number of infections low.” “It is up to all of us” to avoid the second blockade, reducing social contacts, previous celebrations, private gatherings in large groups and parties, he said in a long video broadcast via Facebook entitled “The situation in Austria is dire.”
On Sunday, Kurz encouraged the Austrians to a “challenging autumn and winter”, an “extremely difficult time” with “restrictions, necessary measures and exemptions”. But he reiterated his assessment that there should be a vaccine next summer and with it return to normal. On Monday morning, the federal government will hold a video conference with governors on new measures in light of record daily increases in people infected with corona. Later there will be a joint press conference at 10.30 am, in which the decided measures will be presented.
“Crown fatigue”
He briefly addressed the notorious “fatigue of the Crown”, which increasingly generated conspiracy theories, going through open calls not to comply with the measures. He confirmed that the pandemic, with around 1,000 to 1,500 new infections each day, is not yet a problem for intensive care medicine. But the virus is growing exponentially, the numbers doubling in three weeks. If you can’t slow this down, Austria has 6,000 new infections every day in December. That is “anything but unreal”, the Czech Republic already has this situation today. With the onset of the flu wave, one would gradually find the limits of the capabilities of intensive care medicine.
“The goal should be to prevent that,” reducing social contacts and wearing masks. This could avoid a second blockade, Kurz already referred to “blockade-like conditions” in many countries. Of course, restrictions on events and parties would hurt many companies. But with a second blockade, the economic damage would be much greater and “many more jobs would be threatened.”
“The higher the number of infections, the greater the economic damage in a country,” Kurz said, referring to Austria’s high dependence on tourism and the high damage caused by travel advisories. The coronavirus “destroys countless jobs and causes a lot of suffering to many people.” There is no simple answer or quick fixes through individual measures. But: “We can, we must and we will survive this time together in Austria,” Kurz emphasized.
Do not lock up the elderly
The chancellor also clearly opposed the position that it would be enough to lock up the elderly. “We don’t want to be that kind of society,” he said. “Older people and risk groups deserve our consideration for them.” Furthermore, that would not work if older people also had to be cared for by employees in nursing homes, and most do not live in homes, but “in the middle of society”, often with families.
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