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Austria will enter a new quarantine period on Tuesday, November 17 and until December 6 inclusive, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced on Saturday. The government will close schools, shops and services and impose a traffic ban, reports agerpres.ro
“A second quarantine is the only known tool that works,” said the Conservative chancellor at a press conference, emphasizing that measures are needed to reduce the number of infections and avoid overloading the hospital system.
“It’s the only way we can save Christmas,” he said, hoping that the measures would relax until the big holiday in late December, DPA said.
Austria is one of the European countries that best emerged last spring from the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, but now faces a steady rise in infections. The new quarantine measures are similar to those of spring.
On November 3, the government announced a partial quarantine, with the closure of restaurants, bars, theaters, concert halls, as well as universities and colleges for students over 15 years of age, as well as a ban on night traffic.
However, the measures did not produce the expected results, and infections continued to rise to a new high of about 9,600 cases on Friday, with more than 4,000 people hospitalized, of which about 560 in intensive care. Another 7,000 were registered on Saturday, compared with just 1,000 in early October.
The average of last week was about 7,000 infections per day, with an incidence of 550 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, that is, 11 times higher than the desired value, while 77% of the infections can no longer be traced, reports EFE.
The number of deaths from COVID-19 exceeds 1,600, double than two months ago.
Faced with this situation, the Alpine country must extend the prohibition of night traffic throughout the day, which means that all educational institutions, from nurseries to universities, must remain closed and operate online.
Employees who cannot telecommute will be able to send their children to schools and kindergartens for supervision there.
All non-essential shops and services, including hair salons, must be closed for the next three weeks, with the exception of supermarkets, pharmacies, banks and post offices.
“If we don’t react en masse, there is a risk that the infections will continue to grow or remain too high,” Kurz said. “Our goal is to reopen businesses and schools as of December 7,” summed up the federal chancellor.
The measures announced on Saturday include an explicit call from the government on all companies and all employees to work remotely whenever possible.
In addition, social contacts should be limited to a maximum from Tuesday, to people who share the same home and important people outside the home, but always only one for each meeting.
The state will provide generous financial aid to companies affected by this second closure, following the example of aid to the gastronomic sector that closed on November 3. These are compensations with a maximum of 80% of the turnover registered in November of last year.
Although individual outdoor sports will be allowed, all organized and federated sports activities will be stopped, except for high-performance sports such as soccer.
Christian churches and other places of worship will remain open and may offer religious ceremonies.
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