CoV on December 17 | Contact Tracing Rebounds in Austria

Reporting on the coronavirus in Vienna and Austria is brought to you by Benjamin Wolf, Amina Frassl & Daniel El-Sabeh.

Find here the daily coronavirus updates for Austria, with everything you need to know about COVID-19.

Here’s how Austria will open up after the second lockdown.

Here is a wrap-up of the measures currently in place in Austria.

December 17, 2020

News from Austria

• Federal states who have given up on contact tracing during the height of the second wave have now again restarted it in a serious way.
  • In Vienna, for example, the percentage of cases that could be effectively tracked and traced rose from a nadir of merely 30% on November 15 to almost 60% on December 15.
  • In most other federal states, the share of effectively traced cases plummeted below 10% in November before rebounding recently to between 15% and 50%.
  • Contact tracing still works very badly in Lower Austria, Styria, Upper Austria and the Burgenland, whose success rate is below the Austrian average of approximately 30%.
  • Carinthia, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg have success rates ranging between 30% and 50%, with Vienna in the lead with almost 60%.
  • See graphic below for more details and the curve in the last months.

• The first CoV vaccinations could be given in Austria this year, in nursing homes in Vienna and Lower Austria.
  • A pharmaceutical wholesaler in Vienna-Simmering is to receive Austria’s first 10,000 vaccine doses – the refrigerators are prepared.
  • Pfizer gave assurances in a video conference with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) that it would begin delivering the first doses of vaccine immediately after approval.
  • This would mean that the first delivery could ideally arrive in Austria and all other EU countries as early as December 24.
  • Kurz stated that the first vaccinations could possibly take place on Dec. 24 already.

• The number of new infections decreased slightly to 2,485 in the last 24 hours.
  • A new high was recorded with 218 deaths within 24 hours.
  • For the first time, more than 200 Corona deaths were reported in Austria in one day.
  • To a large extent, however, these are said to be follow-up reports from Vienna.
  • The number of known active cases fell by -1,227 (-3.8 %) to a total of 31,429.
  • The federal states reported the following numbers of new infections:
    • Burgenland: 62
    • Carinthia: 248
    • Lower Austria: 390
    • Upper Austria: 547
    • Salzburg: 202
    • Styria: 549
    • Tyrol: 252
    • Vorarlberg: 132
    • Vienna: 384
  • The number of daily tests is at around 28,000.
  • The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 fell by considerable -190 (-5.6%), to currently 3,220.
  • Of those, 530 are in intensive care, a slight decrease by -18 (-3.3%) to the day before.
  • Since the beginning of the pandemic, 4,982  people in Austria have died due to COVID-19.

• Individual property managers are already pointing out to their tenants that operating costs will rise from 2021 onwards. Mentioned reasons include working from home and the absence of vacations.
  • Due to the pandemic Viennese daily routine habits have changed; leading to more water, electricity and heat consumption.
  • At Wiener Wohnen, which manages the Vienna municipal buildings, one did not want to go further into the possible increases.
  • A spokeswoman says: “At present, it is not possible to say whether there will be increases due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
  • Wien Energie expects an increase of 10% for energy consumption costs. However, this is only an estimate and depends on how much an individual worked from home.
  • An evaluation by the energy provider shows that energy consumption fell sharply in spring due to closed offices. During November, this was no longer as noticeable.
  • Employee representatives are now demanding compensation for home office energy costs from employers.
  • The Chamber of Labor reckoned with about 25 euros, which should be reimbursed as a lower limit. The Chamber of Commerce has a flat rate tax in mind.

• The Chamber of Commerce expects at least 50,000 applications for support from the Hardship Fund for the ninth pandemic month (November 16 to December 15, 2020) these days.
  •  These can be applied for since yesterday.
  • So far, 810 million euros have been paid out, supporting 207,000 self-employed workers.
  • On average, 1,200 euros per person per month were subsidized, the chamber said.

• Since yesterday evening, it has been possible to register for the free rapid tests in Tyrol.
  • An onslaught of requests led to system failures in the evening.
  • In the meantime, capacities have been increased and errors have been corrected, it was said.

Elsewhere in Europe & Around the World

• French President Emmanuel Macron has been infected with CoV.
  • This was announced today by the Presidential Office in Paris. He will continue his duties as head of state in self-isolation, it said.

• Slovakia has already brought forward the start of a lockdown planned for next week to this Saturday, strict curfew restrictions will go into effect.
  • This was announced yesterday by Health Minister Marek Krajci after an hour-long government meeting.

• Vaccinations against the coronavirus are scheduled to begin in Germany on Dec. 27.
  • Health Minister Jens Spahn informed the Conference of Health Ministers about the approval and supply of the vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer.
  • Germany recently reported a peak in new deaths and a further increase in infection numbers. Health authorities reported 952 more deaths and 27,728 new infections.
  • A week ago, 20,815 new infections and 590 deaths had been reported.

• Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav believes Sweden has not succeeded in its fight against the CoV pandemic, saying: “I think we have failed, and a large number that have died, that is terrible.”

• French diagnostics company Biomerieux said it has received certification to sell a test that can distinguish coronavirus disease from influenza.
  • In addition, the test detects two other respiratory diseases with similar symptoms, the company announced yesterday.
  • Using a nasal swab, the test kits can detect influenza types A and B, Covid-19, and two other viral diseases.

On the next page, you find an overview of all measures currently in place in Austria.