Category: Feature Stories

18,854 tests have been carried out in Austria in the last 24 hours – bringing the total number to 1,413,965. However: With the 1450 hotline it sometimes takes two to three days to carry out a corona test in a suspected case. In view of this long waiting period, members of the Health Minister’s Expert Council in the Ö1 Morgenjournal demanded that General Practiotioners should also be allowed to offer free corona tests. The Medical Association and the Ministry are basically positive about the proposal. In the Ö1 Mittagsjournal, Medical…

Read More

In view of the high number of new infections, Vienna is now officially considered a corona risk area in Germany. Germany currently defines regions in France, Spain, Belgium, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic and Switzerland as risk areas. Entering Germany from risk areas must have themselves tested for the coronavirus in Germany, unless they can show a negative test result that is no more than 48 hours old. As long as no negative result is available, they have to go into domestic quarantine for two weeks. Austria’s Foreign Minister…

Read More

Despite the conversion of the Corona traffic light to orange in seven districts “the schools remain yellow and the universities likewise”. Minister of Education Heinz Fassmann (ÖVP) emphasized this in a press conference on Tuesday. The recommendation of the traffic light commission was followed here. He said that the occurrence of infections showed that it was “epidemiologically justifiable” to keep the educational institutions open. Originally it had been said that upper secondary schools in “orange” districts could switch to home schooling. Since the start of school, 202 cases of proven…

Read More

What you need to know The elections to the Vienna City Council and district councils 2020 will be held on Sunday, 11 October 2020. The 100 members of the Vienna City Council and Vienna Provincial Parliament are elected in the City Council elections. Depending on a district’s total population, the district councils have between 40 and 60 members each. These are elected in the district council elections. Who is entitled to vote in Vienna? Austrian citizens, who had their primary residence in Vienna on the qualifying date (14 July 2020)…

Read More

Parallel to the tightening of the corona measures, students also returned to their classes in six Austrian states on Monday. A compulsory wearing of masks has been implemented not only in all stores, but also in schools (outside the classroom). As reported, the new rules were introduced nationwide and independently of the much-discussed Corona traffic light. Due to the resulting confusion and the increasing number of new infections, the commission met again on Monday evening. After hours of debate, the commission switched from yellow to orange the capital city of…

Read More

Some people still don’t believe that a mouth and nose protector is a sensible way of preventing the spread of the novel corona virus – although US researchers suspect that the mask has a much more far-reaching effect than previously thought: Scientists at the University of California think that this accessory, which is unpopular with many people, could lead to milder progressions or even immunization. The mask exposes the wearer to a lower viral load, which the body can learn to deal with, according to the researchers’ theory. Mouth and…

Read More

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has been Archbishop of Vienna for 25 years – and could stay that way for a while. After Austria’s highest ranking Catholic clergyman reached retirement age in January and submitted his resignation, the Vatican extended his term of office indefinitely. Since taking office, Schönborn has been accompanied by crises in his church time and again. In church circles, Schönborn is considered cosmopolitan and intellectual. His almost impudent way of proclaiming the truths of faith impresses even liberal critics of the Dominican, who comes from a noble family…

Read More

Because of the increasing number of infections, Switzerland has put Vienna on the list of corona risk areas. As of next Monday, a quarantine obligation will apply to travellers from Vienna, as the news agency Keystone-SDA reported on Friday. In addition to the Austrian capital, the British Virgin Islands, the Czech Republic, and certain areas in France were added to the list. The current Swiss risk list includes more than 50 countries and territories. The rest of Austria is not affected by the measure. Switzerland only puts more regions, but…

Read More

According to a study by the Berlin Charité hospital, rail drivers are not exposed to any increased risk. An examination of 600 train attendants with regular customer contact in IC and ICE trains of the German Railways showed that they do not bear a greater Covid risk than their colleagues who work as train drivers or in the workshop. This was announced by the Berlin Charité and Deutsche Bahn on Wednesday. Antibodies were detected slightly less frequently in train conductors in long-distance traffic than in employees without customer contact. “We…

Read More