10 days before end of lockdown chancellor gives corona light view

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The 7-day incidence has been falling for days, with openings imminent.With 10 days to go before the easing, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz gives a Corona update.

Ten days before the planned opening steps on May 19 – exit restrictions are to fall, gastro, culture and sports are to reopen – Chancellor Sebastian Kurz sees Austria’s Corona strategy confirmed: “The Austrian way of relying on massive testing and regional differentiation, instead of blanket lockdowns, has proven itself. The numbers continue to fall steadily and the situation is easing day by day.”

According to Kurz, the “vaccination turbo of the last few weeks also contributed significantly to this.” Within just seven days, the incidence had fallen from 150 per 100,000 inhabitants to 115 – on Saturday, it was even just over 111. According to the chancellor, the figure is even significantly lower in the particularly vulnerable age groups: 56 for 65- to 74-year-olds, 38 for 75- to 84-year-olds and 57 for those over 85.

Austria had succeeded in “coping better with the third wave, although a lockdown could be prevented in six federal states,” the chancellor said. In an international comparison, Austria also coped better with the third wave than most other countries. According to the chancellor, Ireland, for example, was hit the hardest, with a peak 7-day incidence of over 900, followed by Portugal with 880, the Czech Republic with 850 or Estonia with 800.

Even in direct comparison with Austria’s neighbors, almost every country had higher values, Kurz said. While the highest value in Austria was 260, it was 680 in Slovenia, 670 in Hungary, 530 in Liechtenstein, 420 in Slovakia, 300 in Switzerland and 270 in Italy. While Germany, for example, has been in lockdown since the beginning of January, Austria had already taken many steps towards opening the system in February – through massive testing. And: The number of fatalities is also lower than in all other neighboring countries, with the exception of Switzerland, which can be classified as roughly the same.