Category: General Interest

On Monday, a decision will be made on a possible extension of the lockdown or any relaxation from February 8. Monday afternoon, the state governors will be guests at the Chancellor’s Office, and experts are also expected to attend the meeting. Some state leaders spoke out in advance in favor of openings in the areas of schools and commerce. February 8 had been mentioned in mid-January during the extension of the current lockdown as the earliest date from which trade, hairdressing salons and museums, but also face-to-face teaching at schools…

Read More

Commuters must now also present mandatory tests upon entry. Otherwise, they face a ten-day quarantine. Due to the spread of various mutants of the coronavirus, there will now also be a tightening of entry regulations in Austria next week. On Thursday, the draft of a new regulation had been submitted to countries and social partners for review, next week it is to be finalized, the APA learned from the Ministry of Health. The draft, which has been submitted to the agency, provides for mandatory tests upon entry – including for…

Read More

Novavax serum also shows high efficacy against British coronavirus mutant B.1.1.7, less so against South African mutant. US pharmaceutical company Novavax has announced a high efficacy rate for its Corona vaccine candidate. The drug showed 89.3 percent efficacy in the third and final study phase in subjects in the United Kingdom, the company announced Thursday. The vaccine could play an “important role” in managing the pandemic, Novavax CEO Stanley Erck said. The Novavax drug also showed high efficacy against the coronavirus mutant known as B.1.1.7. first identified in the United…

Read More

By the end of this week, a total of 51,300 people should have received the first coronavirus vaccination, according to the Vienna Vaccination Plan. In addition, 6,400 more people are expected to have received the second dose, bringing the total number of vaccinations to 57,700. 18,000 residents of Vienna nursing homes were to have received vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 by Jan. 31. According to the City of Vienna, 20,560 vaccinations were administered in the in-clinic sector and 8,500 in the outpatient sector, which also includes doctors’ offices. In each case, 1,000…

Read More

Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) is aiming for a nationwide option for corona testing. In the question time of the Bundesrat, Anschober named the “medium-term” goal of offering a test service in every municipality, if possible. The range of test roads has already been massively expanded in cooperation with the federal states, he said. In addition, the minister also announced agreements with the interest groups for tests in companies. Self-rapid tests to be implemented “as quickly as possibleAnschober wants to implement the already agreed self-quick tests “as quickly as possible”.…

Read More

Based on analyses of the genetic material of Sars Cov-2 viruses in samples, the suspicion of the new virus variant has been confirmed: To date, 149 detections of the British variant (“B.1.1.7”) and three of the South African variant (B.1.351) have been discovered. This is according to a release from the Ministry of Health. Additional data are still needed for an Austria-wide assessment of the trend, it says. As of today, the 152 variant detections with the complex whole-genome sequencing compared with about 14,800 active corona cases in Austria. Samples…

Read More

The Merkur supermarket chain will become part of the Billa family! The new name of the stores and what the customers expect will be known in April. According to the Austrian free newspaper “Heute” the Austrian supermarket chain, which belongs to the German Rewe Group and has been operated by Billa AG since August 2020, will become part of the Billa family. From April, the stores will be renamed “Billa Plus”. “Two strong sales formats that have been successful for decades are now moving even closer together, can support each…

Read More

Car drivers will pay a fine of 120 euros for missing the 2021 vignette. Neither excuses nor ignorance will protect you from a fine as of February 1 if you have not yet obtained a new vignette by that time. The annual freeway vignette for 2020 will lose its validity at the end of January. As of February 1, only the new adhesive version in the color “apple green” or the digital vignette 2021 is permitted. Excuses or ignorance do not protect against a “substitute toll” – i.e. a fine…

Read More

German vaccine manufacturer Biontech wants to supply the EU with as much of its product as possible than was actually planned. “Of course, we are working to also make up for the reduction in deliveries of ampoules and even deliver more than 100 percent of the doses in the first quarter,” CFO Sierk Poetting told the Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspapers (Thursday editions). Biontech and its U.S. partner Pfizer are currently supplying less vaccine to the EU than planned because of rebuilding work at a Belgian plant. However, the…

Read More