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While FFP2 mask rules are tightened significantly, in many cases, contact persons of infected persons no longer have to stay at home.
8853 new corona cases were reported Thursday, plus the first death attributed to the Omicron variant. “The virus,” Chancellor Karl Nehammer put it at a press conference of government and experts, “knows no holidays.” And so Epiphany also brought a series of new Corona measures for Austria. Some of them are softenings of previous rules, especially when it comes to quarantine. But with the extension of the mask requirement to the outdoors, the measures are also tightened. And in contrast to other countries, such as Spain, not just any mouth-nose protection is to be worn outdoors in Austria, but an FFP2 mask, as indoors. The individual measures in detail:
Mask outdoors
The basic rule conveyed by the government on Thursday is that one must wear an FFP2 mask outdoors, wherever a two-meter distance to others is not possible. If this definition remains in place, it is likely to lead to an almost permanent outdoor mask requirement in major cities. The government cited pedestrian zones, queues, but also whenever someone is approaching on the street as concrete examples of the new mask requirement.
One will have to pay attention here to how the regulation text looks in detail. In states with mask obligations outdoors (Spain, Italy), for example, exceptions are common when someone is doing sports. In addition, the Austrian government announced exceptions for cases where people are only walking with their closest relatives or partner – as long as no one else comes within two meters. The government explains the mask rule outdoors with the increased risk of infection in Omicron, the duty is to apply from Tuesday.
No lockdown
It is further permitted to meet without mask at home or in restaurants with others. Stores will also remain open – in this case with masks as before. The government is counting on the new virus variant being less dangerous. And that another lockdown can be spared, even if there is no certainty of this, as was emphasized. Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein also explained that Omicron is milder than the previously prevalent Delta variant. Whereas previously one in four Corona patients in hospital had to be transferred to intensive care, with Omicron it was only one in ten. “But that’s not an all-clear,” Mückstein said. For example, Omicron’s high rate of infection could lead to critical infrastructure being compromised, he said.
Fewer in quarantine
The point raised by Mückstein also ensures that quarantine rules will become much more lenient as early as Saturday. Anyone who works professionally in the critical infrastructure will be allowed to continue working immediately, even if they have had contact with an infected person. For this, however, the person must constantly wear an FFP2 mask and prove daily by test that he himself is not infected. For contact persons in less important occupations, it also applies that they can only take time off after the fifth day.
However, many people will be allowed to continue working because they are no longer registered as contacts despite having contact with infected persons. This applies to all those who have already been vaccinated three times. In the future, a person will also not be considered a contact person if both of them were wearing a mask when they met the infected person.
Anyone who has tested positive for the coronavirus can be cleared after five days (previously after the tenth).
- source: diepresse.at/picture: pixabay.com
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