Thursday, November 18, 2021

Incidence values ​​around 1600
Parts of Austria are going into lockdown for everyone

The Prime Ministers of Salzburg and Upper Austria have long resisted restrictions on vaccinated people, but now they are announcing a general lockdown. The infection process can hardly be tamed. Health Minister Mückstein is therefore more. Does the vaccination campaign endanger?

The two Austrian regions with the highest corona numbers will go into a general lockdown next week. This was announced by the Prime Ministers of Salzburg and Upper Austria, Wilfried Haslauer and Thomas Stelzer. The conservative state leaders, like Chancellor and ÖVP party colleague Alexander Schallenberg, had previously spoken out against strong restrictions on those who had been vaccinated.

“We don’t have much leeway anymore, not to say: We have very, very little leeway,” argued Stelzer with reference to the full hospitals. The politician spoke out in favor of a uniform approach throughout Austria. If that were not possible, the regional measures would definitely come into force for several weeks. “We see no alternative to a lockdown beginning next week,” Haslauer told the APA news agency. Details about the restrictions in the two federal states and the Bavarian border are to be announced in the course of the day.

Austria just under 1000 incidence

Today, Thursday, the number of new infections within 24 hours in Austria reached a record of 15,145. Almost 40 percent of the new cases were registered in Upper Austria and Salzburg. With seven-day incidences around 1600, the two regions are well above the value of 989.

A lockdown for unvaccinated people has been gilded throughout Austria since Monday. Whether additional nationwide measures will be taken for the general population will be decided in talks between the federal and state governments tomorrow, Friday. Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein had recently spoken out in favor of a general nocturnal exit restriction, but Chancellor Schallenberg has so far refused to die. The ÖVP fears that such measures will reduce the willingness for first and booster vaccinations again. However, a general vaccination requirement is being considered within the government.

Meanwhile, the Social Democratic opposition leader and epidemiologist Pamela Rendi-Wagner is calling for a nationwide lockdown for at least two weeks if the situation does not resolve itself within 48 hours. Compulsory vaccination could not break the current wave of infections, but it could last longer. So you have to think about it.