Author:

Teen Victoria

With a total shutdown of less than a month, the number of new cases per day in Austria dropped from 10,000 to 3,000, closely followed by the management of the epidemic in Hungary until mid-November. This is over: after Viktor Orbán’s announcement, it is clear that we have launched the Austrian sample. However, the Hungarian government can be at great risk during the festive period.

Coronavirus: the second wave, the second closure

Later than expected by many, but in mid-November, the Hungarian government also decided to try to curb the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic by introducing restrictions. At the time of the decision, 5,000 new infections a day had been identified and the number of deaths from the virus mostly ranged from 50 to 100 in 24 hours. The first step is a partial closure, but how effective it is is questionable. Follow our news!

“In our experience, the course of the epidemic in Hungary follows the Austrians with a delay of a week or two,” explained Viktor Orbán about the introduction of the curfew in his announcement on November 9. The prime minister was not the first to refer to our western neighbor as a laboratory. Outbreak management is an example to follow.

However, based on the last weeks, everything indicates that the plan has changed: while the Austrians have closed the country, significantly reducing the number of infected, the Orbán government, despite the record data, is not tightening, just extending the measurements so far.

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Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced on November 3 the first austerity measures that would be applied to the entire territory of Austria. According to this, the 8.8 million countries among others

  • A curfew went into effect between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
  • hotels could only accept business guests,
  • pubs, bars, discos are closed,
  • restaurants can only be used for home delivery,
  • and a general ban on events came into force.

We only had to wait a week, and similar measures were put in place in Hungary until the speech, with the difference that in Hungary the curfew lasted until 5am, and the service providers (such as hairdressers, beauticians, masseurs) They could only be open until 7pm. .

Looking at the data from a month before the measures, it is not surprising that the two countries have opted for a tightening. The Oxford University comparison chart clearly shows that at that time the number of new registered infections per million people in both Austria and Hungary increased permanently.

The big change came when Austria did not achieve as much, and since the number of infected people did not decrease significantly, they fell further. Austria basically closed on November 15: a one-day curfew was introduced, shopping malls were closed, and schools completely switched to digital education, leaving only kindergartens open.

This graph shows how the epidemic figures developed in Austria in the week and a half after the first shutdown, prompting the government to decide that it should tighten up even more.

As Viktor Orbán compared Austria to an experimental laboratory in the first wave of the coronavirus epidemic, many expected Hungary to follow the Austrians in this as well. However, despite the fact that the Hungarian epidemic situation did not improve, this did not happen and, in early December, it became clear that

the Hungarian prime minister gave the example of managing the epidemic in Austria.

Orbán announced early in the afternoon on Monday that the government will extend the measures until January 11, but there will be no further tightening for now. This means that not only shopping malls, markets can remain open, but also teaching in primary schools. The number of people infected and killed broke records last week, Monday’s data was more subdued than it was, but no one has yet said that the epidemic has peaked and the situation has improved.

Although the Prime Minister stressed that New Year’s Eve street dances and events should be canceled this year, he did not rule out that Christmas Eve is an exception to the curfew, the operational court would decide on December 21.

In order to be able to compare the results of the increasingly separate epidemiological management of the two countries, it is worth taking a look at the evolution of the graph that shows the new infections registered (per million inhabitants) during the last month. It is clear from this that in Austria, the number of new infections started to drop dramatically as a result of the total curfew (i.e. the second tightening), while in Hungary, despite the measures taken so far, the situation it has not improved drastically, but stagnation is typical.

stagnation is typical.

As a result of the results, the relaxation of the rules was already celebrated in Austria on Monday: shops were opened and teaching began also in the lower grades of schools. Thus, they essentially reverted to the current Hungarian measures, with the difference that due to the one-month lockdown, holiday preparations are in a much better position: the number of new diseases per day has decreased from ten thousand to three thousand, and only 2,263 new infections were reported Monday. It is true that the death toll is high even here, increasing by 108 people.

In addition to the use of masks, a new requirement in Austrian stores is that only one customer can be present for every 10 square meters, and in restarted primary schools, children over 10 years old must also wear masks in classrooms.

Another important milestone in the management of the epidemic in Austria is that the announced mass tests began on Friday in Vienna and Austria’s two western provinces, Tyrol and Vorarlberg. In the Austrian capital, 150,000 daily tests are planned for free for the population, for which an entire street has been converted into a filtering station.

Massive tests in Vienna

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With these steps, Austria is dramatically preparing to keep the number of epidemics as low as possible in the December to January period, which is considered the riskiest, but the question is how the next few weeks will play out in Hungary. While the number of people hospitalized and ventilated continues to grow, Cecília Müller, national medical director, has repeatedly pointed out that there are positive advances in the development of new infections. However, as health analyst Zsombor Kunetz has pointed out, this may not be enough for the festive period, when Hungarians will be crammed with shops. With this, and the lack of adjustment, on the other hand, Hungary may even risk the curfew here or there, by the end of the year, the small, hard-won improvement, falling into the pot.


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Austria to start mass testing after curfew is lifted



hvg.hu
World

Austria will start mass testing, like Slovakia, from December 7, after lifting travel restrictions, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced on Sunday.

If Austria is the laboratory, we can start to worry



Adam Bihari
At home

Despite the rigor that arrived almost two weeks earlier, the infection data from our western neighbor is still far from reassuring. Our chances of survival, on the other hand, would be much higher in Austrian hospitals. Together, the two figures predict a dark Hungarian December.