Category: General Interest

Due to the new lockdown, there will be no public church services in the Catholic Church from Monday until January 17. Thus, at the beginning of the week, the pandemic-related restrictions also apply in the church area, after public services could still be celebrated on St. Stephen’s Day and Sunday. “Churches continue to be open during the day for personal prayer,” the current framework order of the Bishops’ Conference states in this regard. In addition, the celebration of services not open to the public in the smallest circle on Sundays…

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On Sunday COVID 19 vaccinations kicked off at 9 am. The first people to receive the vaccine were three women and two men aged between 80 and 93. They had volunteered to be volunteers and received the first of two partial vaccinations. The vaccinations were administered by Univ. Prof. Dr. Ursula Wiedermann-Schmidt, chairwoman of the national vaccination committee and professor of vaccinology at the Medical University of Vienna. Even though the first people have already been vaccinated, many questions remain unanswered for some: How safe are the vaccinations? Are vaccinated…

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Austrians’ confidence has decreased in 2020. Never since the introduction of its New Year’s survey in 1972 has the Linz-based opinion research institute IMAS registered such a poor basic mood. A year with Corona has apparently meant that only one third of the population is now in a positive mood going into the new year. According to the latest study, just 22 percent thought 2020 had been a good year. The study, published on Monday, shows that three-quarters of respondents regard the year ending as “bad” (29 percent) or “not…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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