Category: General Interest

After the hard lockdown on January 17, 2021, there will be an opportunity to take part in events or visit stores and restaurants by means of Corona tests. However, the control of compliance with these rules will not normally be carried out by the police. In an interview conducted by the Austrian Press Agency (APA), the Interior Minister Karl Nehammer recognizes here primarily the responsibility of the operators themselves as well as for instance the chamber of economics or the labor inspectorate. The Minister does not want to completely rule…

Read More

Long flights will probably only be possible in the future with a negative corona test or proof of vaccination, according to the boss of AUA parent Lufthansa. “Personally, I assume that on intercontinental flights on certain routes, every passenger will either be tested or vaccinated in the future,” Carsten Spohr told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. Compulsory vaccination, as planned by Australian airline Quantas, is not envisaged at Lufthansa, he said. In a first phase, the number of routes with mandatory rapid tests will initially increase, he said. “In…

Read More

The number of new infections has fallen slightly in Austria, but this is due to the low number of tests registered because of the holidays. From Saturday to Sunday, there were only 9,909 tests nationwide; the day before, there were almost twice as many, 17,384. 14.9 percent of the 9,909 tests were positive. As a result, the seven-day incidence – number of new infections in seven days per 100,000 population – continued to decline slightly from 149.1 to 146.5. Within the past 24 hours, there were 38 deaths from or…

Read More

In an interview conducted by Austria`s television channel ORF, Chancellor Kurz analyzes the right way to deal with the corona pandemic: “We must do everything now to prevent a third wave from catching up with us” – with an appeal, but also a self-critical look back at the turn of the year, Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said. Basically, he says, one slogan applies: testing and vaccination will restore people’s freedoms. Kurz sees the fact that in the lockdown the lifts are open and not everyone sees this as a consistent…

Read More

U.S. University of Johns Hopkins confirmed yesterday the number of coronavirus infections worldwide. The number has risen to more than 80 million since the pandemic began. Only about a month ago, on Nov. 25, the threshold of 60 million infections had been exceeded. The number of known deaths related to the virus now stands at 1.75 million. Scientists assume high levels of unreported cases for both infections and deaths. University figures are updated regularly and are often slightly higher than official data. The World Health Organization (WHO) last reported the…

Read More

The Austrian press AGency (APA) reports that the first 10,000 doses of Biontech/Pfizer’s Corona vaccine arrived safely in Vienna-Simmering at 5:35 a.m. Saturday. A refrigerated truck with large infrastructure inside, escorted by police vehicles, delivered the precious commodity, the Interior Ministry said. The transport had started in Puurs, Belgium, and at 2:00 a.m. units of the provincial traffic departments of Vienna and Upper Austria received it at the Suben border crossing (Schärding district). The first five volunteers – all high-risk patients over 80 years of age – will be vaccinated…

Read More

Austrian television, ORF reports that the first shipment with the vaccine against the coronavirus from the manufacturer Biontech/Pfizer has passed the Austrian border during the night. This was also announced by the Interior Ministry. The shipment of about 10,000 doses had started in Puurs, Belgium, and arrived at the Austrian border crossing at Suben in Upper Austria via Germany at about 2:00 a.m.. There, the transport was taken over by units of the regional traffic departments of Vienna and Upper Austria. From the state border, several police patrols took over…

Read More

No handshaking for the greeting of peace, no preparation of gifts: under Corona conditions Pope Francis celebrated the traditional Christmas Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. At the Mass on the occasion of the birth of Jesus Christ, the head of the Catholic Church recalled charity. “Insatiably we want more and so we rush to the many feeding places of vanity, forgetting the manger of Bethlehem,” he said Thursday evening at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. Referring to the Christmas story, Francis added in his homily that this manger was poor…

Read More

The pharmaceutical company assumes that its vaccine is also effective against the mutation discovered in Great Britain.Moderna assumes that its vaccine also protects against the more contagious variant of the Corona virus first detected in Great Britain. This is based on the data available so far, the pharmaceutical company says. Tests are planned for each variant. On Wednesday, Canada joined the U.S. in allowing the use of the Moderna vaccine, and it is expected to be approved soon in the EU as well. The Moderna vaccine needs two doses of…

Read More