Year: 2021

During the current EU summit in Brussels, Chancellor Karl Nehammer spoke about the present Covid situation. He said the main issues at stake are vaccination and preparations to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant. EU vaccine procurement is “on a very, very good track,” he said. “Hundreds of millions” of vaccine doses have been ordered, the chancellor added. In addition, guidance has been received from manufacturers that vaccines adapted to the Omicron variant should be available in the spring, Nehammer said. Preparations are underway, and as soon as the…

Read More

Together with the next door in the Advent calendar, the opening of the economy for vaccinated and convalescents after the fourth lockdown goes into the next round today. Upper Austria unlocks everything! In Lower Austria, Carinthia, Styria and Salzburg, the doors of restaurants and hotels open. Only in Vienna hotels and restaurants remain closed until Monday (20 December). Vorarlberg, Tyrol and Burgenland had already opened on Monday the whole economy except the night gastronomy. However, the lockdown for unvaccinated people remains in place throughout Austria. Also the gastronomy must lock…

Read More

In light of the omicron variant, an increasing number of countries are tightening entry regulations. France restricts entry from Great Britain, Israel’s borders remain closed to tourists. Meanwhile, the EU states were only able to reach a minimal compromise at their summit in Brussels – new requirements for travelers are not ruled out. Britain is struggling with two CoV variants at the moment: The number of delta cases remains high, that of omicron cases is growing rapidly. On Thursday, almost 90,000 new infections were reported within 24 hours, a new…

Read More

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) European office is appealing for caution during the Christmas holidays in light of the pandemic situation. “If you plan to see friends and family, keep groups small and, if possible, take a test beforehand,” it said in a statement Thursday. Even those who are fully vaccinated should avoid crowded and confined places and wear a mask, it said. “We are dealing with two highly transmissible variants that have the potential to overwhelm our already overburdened health systems,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Henri Kluge…

Read More

Omicron has numerous mutations compared to delta, which is also evident in other characteristics. A Chinese research team at Hong Kong University has now demonstrated that omicron replicates 70 times faster in the respiratory tract than delta. That may facilitate its spread from person to person, the researchers said. In lung tissue, however, Omicron replicates 10 times slower than the original version of the coronavirus and than the Delta variant, which could contribute to less severe disease. The large differences in the efficiency of Omicron’s replication could help predict the…

Read More