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The government will close schools, shops and services and impose a traffic ban, writes Agerpres.
“A second quarantine is the only known tool that works,” the Conservative Chancellor said at a news conference, noting 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 measures would be eased until the big party in late December.
Austria is one of the European countries that emerged best last spring from the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, but is now facing a steady rise in infections. The new quarantine measures are similar to those of the 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, 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 around 9,600 cases on Friday, with over 4,000 people hospitalized, including around 560 in intensive care. Another 7,000 were registered on Saturday, compared to 1,000 at the beginning of October.
Last week’s average was around 7,000 infections per day, with an incidence of 550 cases per 100,000 population, or 11 times the desired value, while 77% of infections are no longer detectable, EFE reports.
The number of deaths caused by COVID-19 exceeds 1,600, double the number two months ago.
Faced with this situation, the Alpine country must extend the ban on night traffic throughout the day, which means that all educational institutions, from kindergartens to universities, must remain closed and operate online.
Employees who cannot work telework will be able to send their children to schools and kindergartens to be supervised there.
All non-essential shops and services, including hairdressing salons, must remain closed for the next three weeks, with the exception of supermarkets, pharmacies, banks and post offices.
“If we don’t react massively, there is a risk that infections will continue to grow or remain too high,” Kurz said. “Our goal is to reopen business and schools starting December 7,” summed up the Federal Chancellor.
The measures announced on Saturday include an explicit call from the government for all companies and all employees to work remotely whenever possible.
In addition, social contacts should be limited to a maximum of Tuesdays, to people sharing the same house 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 the assistance for the gastronomic sector closed on 3 November. These are compensations up to a maximum of 80% of the turnover recorded in November last year.
Although individual outdoor sports will be allowed, all organized and federated sporting activities will be paralyzed, with the exception of performance sports such as football.
Christian churches and other places of worship will remain open and may offer religious ceremonies.
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