Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler: no assurance of possible loosening after the lockdown

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Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) does not want to make any promises regarding possible loosening after the lockdown due to the second corona wave. “I assume that we will reach the goal”, he said on Sunday in the ORF “Pressestunde” with regard to the currently planned end of the measure. Kogler described the opening of the schools as particularly important. He said that the mass tests announced by the government should not be carried out in an uncoordinated and indiscriminate manner.

“In these times, nothing is fixed,” Kogler said about the hoped-for relaxation after December 6. One could only proceed “gradually and carefully”. In the trade, for example, it would be good if one could ensure “as many opening days as possible” until Christmas Eve. Whereby furniture stores and shopping centers that have so far been “behaviorally conspicuous” are to be controlled more closely. According to Kogler, whether or not a skiing vacation can take place soon depends on containing the incidence of infection on the one hand, and on the other hand on confidence from abroad.

Kogler defended the closing of schools. These are no infection drivers, like other social events, but there are also transmissions of the virus. “Education is also a major economic factor,” emphasized the Vice Chancellor. Therefore everything must be done to ensure that the schools can be opened on December 7th – with additional security measures. Kogler also sees hope for the labor market because of the environmental and climate protection program, which is expected to generate tens of thousands of jobs.

Kogler also defended the closure of the cultural businesses: “It was a matter of reducing contacts for once, in all areas of society. Like sport, for example, this sector also has the right to be supported accordingly. The Vice-Chancellor still does not think that the measures have generally come too late, but he admits that the second wave “was a bit underestimated”. According to him, the main issue will be to ensure contact tracing within 24 hours.