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HANS PUNZ
In Vienna, Burgenland and Lower Austria, most of the shops, museums and zoos closed. Additionally, exit restrictions apply 24 hours a day. Worship services are allowed under strict hygiene rules.
Almost four million of the nine million citizens of Austria are affected. The measure applies in the three affected regions until April 10. The British Crown variant is particularly rampant in the eastern Alpine republic. For the other six federal states, nothing will change for now. The shops here are also open on Good Friday.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz does not currently see the need for a nationwide lockdown. “We are continuing with the regional approach,” Kurz said on Thursday. In some federal states, the situation is very stable. In general, the level of new infections every day has not changed much for about a week.
The seven-day incidence in the three federal states is between 280 and 340. Across Austria, it has been shown that around 250 people per 100,000 inhabitants have contracted the virus in the last seven days.
Virologists recently called for a nationwide shutdown multiple times to break the dynamics of the third wave. Many country leaders would like to wait and see how the numbers evolve. In the political sphere, the negative consequences of the lockdowns not only on the economy are sometimes more clearly discussed than in Germany.
Meanwhile, Austria is preparing to use the Russian Sputnik V vaccine to promote the protection of the population. Kurz made this clear again on Wednesday on the sidelines of a conversation with the Russian ambassador in Vienna. “An order from Sputnik can probably be placed next week,” Kurz said. That’s about 300,000 cans in April, 500,000 cans in May and 200,000 cans at the beginning of June.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is currently examining an application for approval of Sputnik V in the EU. In April, EMA experts in Russia are expected to assess the production and storage of the vaccine. Hungary is already using the Russian preparation, which is approved in more than 50 countries around the world, based on national approval.
Published: 04/01/2021, 3:19 pm
