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.
