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The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has added a number of other countries and regions to the list of risk areas. Besides Poland and Switzerland, this also includes much of Austria. Consequently, the federal states of Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Burgenland and Styria are now also considered risk areas. Tirol (with the exception of Jungholz), Vienna and Voralberg (with the exception of Kleinwalsertal) have long been on the list. Therefore, only the federal state of Carinthia as a whole is not a designated risk area. The classification applies from Saturday.
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The RKI also stated that large parts of Italy are corona risk areas. These include the regions of Valle d’Aosta, Umbria, Lombardy, Piedmont, Tuscany, Veneto, Lazio, Abruzzo, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Sardinia and the autonomous province of Bolzano. The Canary Islands belonging to Spain, meanwhile, will be eliminated from the risk list, as announced on Thursday by the Robert Koch Institute.
The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises against non-essential tourist trips to countries and regions identified as risk areas. This does not mean a travel ban, but travel warnings should have the greatest possible deterrent effect on tourists. Vacationers can cancel a trip that has already been booked if the destination is declared a risk zone. Returnees from risk areas must currently be in quarantine for 14 days or have a negative corona test result.
Nearby in the ski areas of Austria
In Austria, disgust arises from the crowd in front of lifts and cable cars in ski areas. Corresponding images of the glacier ski areas in Stubai and Hintertux were circulating on social media. “We just don’t want to see those photos anymore,” said Josef Schreier of the Innsbruck-Land district authority, according to ORF. When queuing, the specified safe distances had not been observed in recent days.
Authorities and officials are now considering restricting and measuring traffic to ski areas. Skiers should also be more aware of them with advertisements. You don’t want that, but those who don’t understand could be punished with up to 500 euros, Schreier said.
The location in East Tyrol
Killed in Astra Zeneca vaccine study in Brazil
A test person died during the study of a corona vaccine by the pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca in Brazil. This was confirmed by the Brazilian health authority Anvisa. The cause of death is not yet clear.
The British-Swedish group developed the vaccine in collaboration with the University of Oxford. According to its own information, Anvisa was informed of the death on Monday. The recommendation is to continue testing. The case is currently under review and data on the volunteers must be kept confidential.
Anvisa has allowed nearly half a dozen such tests, and thousands of volunteers in Brazil have received a vaccine in recent weeks. The virus is still spreading in the most populous country in Latin America with around 210 million inhabitants, and Brazil has excellent research facilities.
According to the television station CNN Brasil, the deceased is a 28-year-old man from Rio de Janeiro who died of complications related to Covid-19. The Brazilian newspaper Or Balloon reported, citing unidentified sources, that the volunteer in question received a placebo instead of the vaccine. Initially, neither the laboratory nor the test centers nor Anvisa made official comments.
Astra Zeneca initially did not want to comment specifically on an individual case in an ongoing study, even when asked by dpa, but noted that all necessary verification procedures had been followed. A statement from the D’Or Institute (Idor), which is coordinating the study in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, said: “The rigorous analysis of the data so far has left no doubt about the safety of the study and its continuation is recommended. . “
Astra Zeneca temporarily halted the clinical trial of its promising corona vaccine in September, apparently not for the first time. Until then, the AZD1222 vaccine was one of the promising candidates among potential corona vaccines. If the death of the volunteer were related to the vaccine, it would be a severe blow to the project.
Spain is the first EU country to cross the million mark
Spain is the first country in Europe to have more than a million cases of corona. This comes from the latest data from the Ministry of Health. Spain was hit by the second wave as one of the first countries in Europe since mid-August. The measures to contain the pandemic are strict.
Nationwide in Spain there has been a general requirement for a mask outside its own four walls since the beginning of August. Since then, there has also been a powerful ban on smoking in public. In hundreds of municipalities there are more restrictions, for example, on access to bars, restaurants, concert halls or shopping centers such as on the holiday island of Mallorca, which is popular with Germans, or the limitation of participants in meetings only six people, as in Catalonia.
Many communities can only leave or enter for a valid reason. The most prominent case is that of Madrid; there this measure was implemented by the central government against the will of the regional government. Catalonia has just taken drastic measures with the tourist metropolis of Barcelona. All the bars and restaurants here have been completely closed since last Friday.
In neighboring France, too, the number of infected people surpassed the million mark. The government of President Macron wants to extend the health emergency until February 16 next year. A government spokesman announced that the warnings would be updated in various regions on Thursday. This means that several departments would have to issue curfews.
Germany’s neighboring countries are reporting new corona highs
In several countries neighboring Germany, the number of new infections during the last 24 hours of Wednesday is at its highest level yet.
In Czech Republic Authorities confirmed 11,984 new infections Wednesday. With only 10.7 million inhabitants, the country has one of the highest levels of infection per 100,000 inhabitants in Europe. The government is cracking down on measures that amount to a national shutdown. As of Thursday morning, almost all stores will have to close, as Health Minister Roman Prymula announced on Wednesday. Grocery stores, drug stores and pharmacies, among others, are excluded.
According to the World Health Organization, the large number of cases in the Czech Republic contributed to the fact that 38 percent of new corona cases recorded worldwide last week occurred in Europe.
Also in Poland the number of new cases of infection is rising again at a record high: after a massive test on 60,000 people, authorities report 10,040 infections during the last 24 hours. This brings the total number of coronavirus cases to more than 200,000, according to the information, which has doubled in less than three weeks.
the Netherlands reach the previous high of new infections with 8,500 cases, announced the National Institute of Public Health. Just a week ago, the government in The Hague took new measures to contain the virus pandemic.
In the Switzerland the number of coronavirus infections has also skyrocketed. The local health authority recorded a new record of 5,596 new infections. The previous day was 3008. In Switzerland, the number of new infections, based on a population of around 8.5 million, has risen more rapidly in recent days than in most other European countries.
the Slovakia reports 2202 new infections – here too, a new record. The Health Ministry announced that a total of 33,602 people have been shown to have been infected with the corona virus. Around 5.5 million people live in Slovakia.
Austria confirmed new infections in 1958 on Wednesday, according to the Health Ministry and the Interior Ministry in Vienna. The previous record daily value had only been recorded a few days earlier on Saturday with 1,747 new cases. Compared to Germany, Austria, a country of nine million people, has slightly more than twice as many new Sars-CoV-2 infections per capita.
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