Corona rules get tighter this week

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In addition to mandatory masks indoors, quarantine reductions will be adopted, among other measures. Vienna is going its own way.

At the moment, masks are only compulsory in vital areas throughout Austria. So in supermarkets, public transport, pharmacies, and banks. The city of Vienna takes a stricter approach; here, the mask requirement applies in all indoor areas, so also in shops or at concerts.

Health Minister Johannes Rauch said that from, presumably, Wednesday, the mask obligation in indoor rooms in all of Austria will be reintroduced. There will be “another two weeks of persistently high numbers in new infections,” Rauch said. He said the Covid forecasting consortium expects at least 50,000 new infections daily.

For this reason, Rauch and his staff want to enact a “constitutionally covered ordinance” that would reinstate the mask requirement as early as this week, he said. The new health minister said it would probably be done by Wednesday as a time frame.

New quarantine rules

Also, starting this week, there are new rules in the federal capital Vienna. As Mayor Michael Ludwig announced on Thursday, the visiting rules in Vienna’s hospitals and nursing homes are to be reorganized. As a reminder, Vienna already has stricter measures: FFP2 mask obligation in all indoor rooms, 2-G in gastro and night gastro.

In addition, only one visitor per patient per day is allowed in hospitals. In facilities for the elderly or those in need of care, this is to be two persons per day. In addition to the visitor limit, the 2G-plus regulation will also be used again in hospitals in the future. This means that only vaccinated and recovered patients will be allowed to visit relatives. The latter must also present a negative PCR test. Ludwig stressed that the 2G rule would also apply in the foodservice industry and night catering. FFP2 masks will continue to be mandatory throughout the trade, he added.