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First entry: Saturday, November 14, 2020, 10:19 p.m.
Due to the increasing number of new infections, the stricter restrictions, ranging from a “partial lockdown”, which has been in force in Austria since November 3, to a “total lockdown”, which will take effect from midnight on next Monday to Tuesday. , Until November 17 and until Sunday December 6, announced late in the afternoon in Vienna, the Austrian Federal Chancellor and leader of the People’s Party, Sebastian Kurtz.
The new lockdown, reminiscent of last spring, generally provides for an extension of 24-hour exit restrictions, which used to be from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and the closure of stores, excluding grocery stores. pharmacies, cosmetic stores, kiosks, banks and post offices, as well as closing schools.
Given that the figures do not decrease with the current “partial blockade”, a tightening of the measures is necessary, said the foreign minister, noting that the authorities could not identify the source of 77% of the new infections and, therefore, the second lock is “the reliable tool that will work.”
According to him, social contacts are now clearly regulated, which means that in addition to members of the same household, one can only meet his partner, “close individual relatives” or “important individual reference persons”, while during the confinement, people who live alone must nominate a person to keep in touch with.
Directing a call to have meetings with a single person as far as possible, he stressed that “all social contact is a lot, and only in this way can Christmas and the previous time be saved.”
Schools, as he said, will go to distance education until December 6 and there will only be care (and no lessons) in schools in case of emergency.
“Kindergartens and schools remain open to those who need them,” said Green Werner Kogler, vice chancellor and leader of the Greens, saying that “many will benefit and this is essential for those who work in vital areas.” , while children will depend on learning.
The narrowness of a confinement could also create excessive burdens and tensions within families, said the vice chancellor, who asked that the offers be used to avoid controversy.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz also assured that the nursery will continue to be available in both schools and kindergartens, and stressed that on December 7 compulsory schooling and commerce will be reopened.
The new “complete” blockade also provides for the closure of all personal services companies, such as hairdressers, beauticians and masseurs and, when possible, teleworking, the foreign minister said.
Instead, in addition to all the food trade, post offices, kiosks, pharmacies, cosmetic stores, agricultural and feed trade, gas stations, mobile phone shops, garbage companies and bicycle and car repair shops will remain open , at all times. It will be limited between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.
As announced during the joint press conference, in the late afternoon, Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler, will be compensated with a part of the losses that will have those stores that have to close as part of the closure.
However, as he clarified, not so many losses will be covered, as in the restoration area, where the amount of compensation was recently set at 80%, but, in commerce, this percentage, depending on the industry, will range between 20 and 60%. .
For his part, the Minister of the Interior, Carl Nehammer, thanked the police who supervise and control the implementation of the regulations and who, as he stressed, are again in action to reduce the number of infections.
In his opinion, there should be a common cooperation of all again, since last March and April “the minimum is required,” he said.
