For the first time, four districts are set to red on the Corona traffic light. Health Minister Rudi Anschober announces new measures that would be implemented in the coming days.
This has never happened before: after days of new coronavirus infections of over 1,000 cases per 24 hours, the Coronavirus Commission set the Corona Traffic Light to red for four districts on Thursday evening: City of Wels in Upper Austria, in Salzburg for Hallein and in Tyrol for Innsbruck city and state. Orange were added 17 new warnings for districts all over Austria, so that the map now has a new coloration over a wide area.
In Carinthia it shines orange in St. Veit an der Glan and Hermagor, in Lower Austria in Baden, St. Pölten (state), Tulln, Wiener Neustadt (state) and St. Pölten (city), in Upper Austria in Steyr (city), Grieskirchen, Ried im Innkreis, Schärding, Wels (state) and Rohrbach, in Salzburg in Salzburg surroundings and St. Johann im Pongau, in Styria in Voitsberg and Bruck-Mürzzuschlag, in Tyrol in Kufstein, Imst and Schwaz and in Burgenland in Oberwart.
What does this mean for the state? That is what the Green Minister of Health Rudi Anschober tried to explain to moderator Lou Lorenz-Dittlbacher in the ORF “ZiB 2” late Thursday evening. “We have a worrying situation throughout Europe, including Austria,” said Anschober. He welcomed the fact that the provincial governors would take regional measures where necessary and as the government had envisaged.
For the time being, the government wants to continue to rely on the measures imposed regionally by the federal states, Anschober said: “With the traffic light and the new Covid measures law, we can work well regionally. Accordingly, Upper Austria will present its own package of measures on Friday, and the aim is to prevent the health care system from becoming overloaded. According to the minister, the situation in Austria is “still relatively good”, with less than 20 percent of the capacity utilization.
But what Anschober confirmed: “Yes, we will also need additional federal measures. The minister explained that the new corona measures for the whole of Austria are currently being worked on, they should then be implemented “at the right time”.
Anschober cannot rule out the possibility that the time will come in the next few days or in the coming week. “One would act if one was convinced that the right time had come,” Anschober said.
The center of the measures will be the protective mask, since the visors would not offer a proper virus protection. And at meetings, the minister said: “30 percent fewer contacts means 50 percent fewer infections”. The citizens had proven that compliance with the measures was working, and now they were called upon to comply again.
In Hallein in particular, but also throughout Austria, Anschober complained that individual people were not adhering to the protective measures and were even giving false information in contacts and quarantines. These were “individual few” who would refuse to act together: “In parts of Austria, we do not yet have the joint action that we need.
And a complete lockdown? “As far as the lockdown is concerned, I can reassure you: It would only be implemented if Parliament were to approve it and if there was a threat of a collapse of the entire healthcare system,” said the Minister. However, he added, it could not be ruled out, nor could it be ruled out by night-time initial restrictions, which, like the lockdown, he wanted to avoid. But: “We will need stronger protective measures so that we do not need a lockdown.
— Hector Pascua, Source: Zeit im Bild and heute.at. Picture: stockilyapp.com
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