Category: Feature Stories

The proportion of those testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 who are symptom-free is 40 percent. That’s the conclusion of a meta-analysis of international studies involving nearly 30 million people. Origin of corona transmissionQiuyue Ma and co-authors from the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Peking University recently published their findings in JAMA Open, an online publication of the American Medical Association. “Asymptomatic infections are potential sources of covid-19 transmission, and the aim was to determine the percentage of asymptomatic infections among those tested and those with confirmed covid-19 disease,” the researchers…

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Saving passwords in browsers like Chrome or Edge is a much-used tool and is actually considered quite secure. It makes logging in to any websites easier, as there is no need to remember login details. After a recent security dilemma at one company, IT researchers are now warning against the use of such features in all browsers, reports the New York Post. That’s because criminals appear to be taking advantage of the pandemic high number of people in the home office. “Although the feature to save account data in browsers…

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The number of Corona infections since the beginning of the pandemic has exceeded one hundred million in Europe, including the Caucasus. In the 52 countries and territories from the Atlantic coast to Azerbaijan and Russia, 100,074,753 infections with the corona virus were reported by the evening of New Year’s Day, according to a calculation by the AFP news agency based on information from authorities. That’s more than one-third of the 288,279,803 corona infections reported worldwide since the pandemic broke out in late 2019. In the past seven days alone, more…

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Since the start of the corona pandemic, travel regulations have been constantly changing. Below are some changes that are already foreseeable in 2022 that will affect travelers. “For example, there are speed limits for e-trekkers in Italy, a permanent winter tire requirement in some regions of France, and changes to tolls and vignettes in Slovenia and Poland, as well as stricter environmental zones in Spain and Belgium. And in Germany, it is planned to make masks compulsory to carry,” says ÖAMTC tourism expert Maria Renner. The most important changes in…

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Hundreds of millions of people in Europe have welcomed 2022 – hoping for an early end to the Corona pandemic. In many places, including Austria, the old year bid farewell with unusually mild temperatures. In many countries around the world, New Year’s Eve celebrations were more subdued than usual because of Corona. Many large parties and fireworks displays were canceled, including festivities in Paris and London. In many countries around the world, the new year began much earlier: the South Sea islands of Samoa and Kiribati were the first in…

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For the first time, the threshold of more than one million new CoV infections per day worldwide has been exceeded, according to a count by the AFP news agency. With more than 7.3 million new infections reported by authorities around the world between Dec. 23 and Dec. 29, there were an average of 1.045 million infections with the coronavirus per day. This is the highest figure since the pandemic began two years ago. The number is significantly higher than the previous record, which was set between April 23 and 29,…

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Living more frugally and not accumulating new debts: this sums up the New Year’s resolutions of Austrians with regard to their finances. While around 29 percent want to put more money into savings accounts in the new year, investing in securities is less attractive for many people: only 15 percent are considering such an investment for 2022, according to a recent survey by J.P. Morgan Asset Management. According to the survey, 37 percent of Austrians intend to live more frugally in the New Year. To do so, they are prepared…

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In view of the new Sars-CoV-2 variant, three questions are currently burning: How contagious is omicron? And how good is the immune protection of the vaccinated and recovered? Does the new variant cause more severe disease than Delta? A good month after the first reports, there are already some answers, from South Africa as well as from European countries. How fast is Omicron spreading?Still rapidly. In South Africa, by the beginning of December, Omicron had marginalized the previously dominant Delta variant within two weeks. In Denmark and the UK, there…

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The omicron wave is rolling: some countries have already reacted with strict measures such as the closure of stores and leisure facilities. Travel is also becoming much more difficult. However, countries are affected differently by the Corona pandemic – and the rules in the fight against Covid-19 are also very different: Germany: after being removed from the list of high-risk countries, entry from Austria is now possible upon presentation of 3G proof – vaccinated, recovered, tested. The proof requirement applies from the age of six. Switzerland: everyone – including vaccinated…

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