Category: General Interest

The new and apparently more contagious variant of the coronavirus has been detected for the first time also in the USA. The mutation was diagnosed in a 20-year-old patient in the state of Colorado, as the governor there Jared Polis announced yesterday on Twitter. The man is in quarantine in Elbert County, he said. He had not been traveling, he said. Today we discovered Colorado’s first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK. Biden: U.S. may face toughest phase in pandemicU.S. President-elect Joe Biden…

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The global community needs to better prepare for future pandemics, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “This is a wake-up call,” WHO Director of Medical Emergencies Michael Ryan said Monday, referring to the corona crisis. “This pandemic is very bad.” The novel coronavirus has spread “rapidly” around the world, he said. But the mortality rate is comparatively low, he said. “We need to prepare for something that may be more severe,” Ryan said. Not adequately prepared WHO expert Bruce Aylward also urged increased vigilance. To be sure, he said,…

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This week, AstraZeneca’s vaccine could be approved in England. The pharmaceutical company assures 100 percent reliability. The recently criticized vaccine from Swedish-British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is close to approval in the UK. According to information leaked in advance by British media from a source close to the company, the vaccine is now 100 percent effective. “We believe we have found the winning formula,” company chief executive Pascal Soriot confirmed to The Sunday Times. He said AstraZeneca’s vaccine can provide “100 percent protection” against severe courses of disease caused by the…

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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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