Category: General Interest

From April, symptom-free people will only be allowed to take five free PCR tests. Should one hoard gargle tests? After much back and forth, there was finally a decision on 15 March: The new health minister Johannes Rauch announced the provisional test strategy. Symptom-free people are only allowed five free PCR tests per month. The unlimited number of free gargle tests will no longer exist at the end of March. In addition, each person is allowed to take five free antigen tests per month. The only exception is that those…

Read More

The government has abolished the quarantine for contacts, but measures have to be tightened at the same time. As of Monday, contact persons of someone infected with Corona no longer have to be quarantined, the government has also relaxed the previous regulation for all people without complete immune protection, so the ten-day domestic isolation falls even for the unvaccinated. No quarantine Instead, the new Health Minister Johannes Rauch has issued so-called “traffic restrictions.“ Those affected are now allowed outside but must wear FFP2 masks – even in the open air.…

Read More

Spring is not only here astronomically: according to the ZAMG forecast, Austria is in for a sunny and mild week. Temperatures may even rise above 20 degrees. Monday will be sunny and primarily cloudless; only in the southwest may there be some fog in the morning, but it will dissipate soon. The wind will be light to moderate from east to south. Early temperatures will be minus eight to plus three degrees, daytime highs eight to 18 degrees, with the highest values in the west. On Tuesday, the sunny and…

Read More

Fourteen thousand five hundred refugees from Ukraine have been registered in Austria. This was announced by the Ministry of the Interior this morning. In Vienna alone, 1,000 persons were registered yesterday, and 2,500 nationwide. It should be noted that the actual registration process has only been underway for precisely one week. As a result of the registration, an ID card for displaced persons can be issued. This, in turn, is a prerequisite to working in the Austrian labor market and serves as a travel document. There are currently 40 registration…

Read More

The number of people fleeing due to war at home and abroad continues to rise. 3.4 million have already left the country. According to UN figures, the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has already forced around ten million people to flee their homes. These people have fled to other places within Ukraine or outside the country, the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, wrote on the short message service Twitter on Sunday. According to the UNHCR, almost 3.4 million people have fled the war…

Read More

In Austria’s 3,000 Roman Catholic parishes, members of the parish councils are elected today. 4.3 million Catholics aged 16 and over are eligible to vote. The size and composition of the bodies that help shape and organize parish processes vary greatly. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference recently emphasized the importance of this body and called for participation in the election. At last count, around 45,000 people belonged to parish councils throughout Austria, 28,000 as elected members. The dioceses cannot come up with concrete results of the parish council elections on Sunday.…

Read More

Maybe you should pay more attention to the expiry date of your food in the future after all. A Harvard University study shows that eating food past its expiration date could lead to an earlier death. The study results were published in the journal “Science Advances.“ Harvard professor Vadim Gladyshev investigated the causes of aging. He found that molecular damage to human cells is partly responsible. Moreover, this damage could be caused by eating old food. “This damage is produced by almost every cellular process. So over time, we have…

Read More

There were more positive PCR tests in Austria’s schools this week than in the previous week. A total of around 19,600 infections were registered during the screenings. In the previous week, there were just under 19,000 registered coronavirus infections. Across Austria, nine schools (last week: eight) are completely closed and an additional 1,198 classes (previous week: 856) are entirely or partially obstructed. 6,582 positive corona tests at Viennese schools In Vienna, 6,582 pupils (previous week: 5,266) were registered with infections, whereby a different test system, “Alles gurgelt,“ is used here…

Read More

After a GECKO meeting on Friday, Health Minister Johannes Rauch commented on the new measures. Mandatory wearing of masks indoors to be reintroduced At the moment, masks are only compulsory in vital areas throughout Austria. That means in supermarkets, public transport”, pharmacies, and banks. Vienna is taking”a stricter approach, making masks mandatory in all indoor areas, i.e., in shops “or concerts. The federal government is also tightening the r”ins again. At 6 p.m., Health Minister Johannes Rauch announced at a press conference that, among other things, mandatory masks would be…

Read More