Category: General Interest

After the heavy snowfalls over the weekend in the south of the country, the weather situation calms down only briefly, and winter has our country firmly in its grip. Snow is expected across the country on Wednesday and Thursday. A first front brings some fresh snow on Tuesday, then on Wednesday or Thursday even large amounts of fresh snow announce themselves again. Only towards the weekend the weather calms down again, according to the experts of the Austrian Severe Weather Center. First weak front on TuesdayUntil Monday evening, largely calm…

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Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen on Monday swore in new Chancellor Karl Nehammer along with the other new ÖVP ministers. He gave the members of the government a mission for the Corona crisis: the government must “come clean to the population”, make fact-based decisions and inform about them in comprehensible, joint communication. “Immediately and together” the government must tackle the “great task” of resolutely combating the pandemic together with its social, economic and human consequences, Van der Bellen urged in a short speech. In this pandemic, one does not…

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The week starts with sunshine, which is replaced by snow, fog and rain, and ends with dry and cold, but friendly weather. Today, Monday, the sun shines south of the main ridge of the Alps, but in the north and east the day still starts with residual clouds. In the congestion of the Alps between Vorarlberg and the Mostviertel, it is still snowing at times, but the cloud cover is loosening more and more. Only on the northern side of the Alps between the Upper Austrian lake district and the…

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According to a new study by the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, the risk of infection when an infected person and a healthy person meet in an indoor space at short distance is a good one per thousand (0.1 percent) when an FFP2 mask is worn correctly. The prerequisite is the correct fit of the FFP2 or KN95 mask, writes the team around Institute Director Eberhard Bodenschatz in the “Proceedings” of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (“PNAS”). With poorly fitting FFP2 masks, on the other…

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Roche subsidiary TIB Molbiol has developed three new tests for the new coronavirus variant Omicron. This would allow mutations of this variant to be detected in a differentiated and precise manner, the Basel-based pharmaceutical company announced Friday. The three new test kits are among the first to specify mutations in the recently discovered Omicron variant, according to Roche. Targeted search only when clustering occursVirologist: Omicron variant already spread worldwide before discoveryThis will allow the spread of circulating variants to be assessed, they say. In addition, the impact of therapies, vaccines…

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Due to the fourth Corona wave, the situation at Vienna’s hospitals continues to be tense. Patients even have to be treated in rehabilitation centers. Operations are also being postponed. Towards the end of the second lockdown week, the number of new Corona infections in Austria continued to fall. Within 24 hours, there were just under 6,738 new infections. But in intensive care units, the number of Corona patients increased by six. Scheduled operations have long been postponed. Daniel Zimpfer, head of pediatric heart surgery at AKH, tells ORF that intensive…

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Starting Monday, the validity of vaccination certificates in the “Green Passport” will be shortened from 360 to 270 days. This was announced by the Ministry of Health yesterday. People who have recovered and have been vaccinated at least once are exempted. For this group, the vaccination certificate will continue to be valid for 360 days for the time being. As of today, 28,423 certificates are affected by these changes, the Ministry of Health said. Accordingly, the percentage of active vaccination certificates will also decrease accordingly. The vaccination coverage rate will…

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In the meantime, the Omicron virus variant has now also reached Vienna – there is one confirmed case and nine suspected cases in the federal capital. According to Sonja Ficht, spokeswoman for the Public Health Service (MA 15), all of them were staying in southern Africa and made a stopover in Mozambique or Zimbabwe on their way home. According to Ficht, those affected have mild courses of the disease and are in quarantine. Their tests are currently being sequenced to determine if they are the corona variant omicron (B.1.1.529). AGES…

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The Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) forecasts cloudy weather in large parts of Austria over the coming day. On the weekend there will be rain and snowfall.Many parts of the country are facing a largely cloudy weekend. Again and again snowfall and rain forecasts the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) for the next few days. On Friday, dense clouds will initially predominate, but will later give way to sunshine. The cloud fields will be somewhat tougher in Salzburg, Upper Austria and Upper Styria, where it will…

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