Recent measures taken by Austria to tackle the spread of the new coronavirus are likely to remain in place at Christmas and New Year, Chancellor Alexander Salenberg said, while the country announced a record number of infections.
In particular, Austria announced 9,943 new infections in a period of 24 hours yesterday, surpassing the previous worst daily report of 13 November 2020, when 9,586 cases were recorded.
To curb the spread, the government announced on Friday that it would ban unvaccinated people from entering cafes, restaurants and hairdressers, with the measure effective from tomorrow Monday.
The ‘2G’ rule, which requires a certificate of full vaccination or recovery, will also apply to hotels and cinemas and events of more than 25 participants.
2G takes its name from the German words meaning “immunized” and “he who has recovered”.
In the workplace, the 3G rule applies from 1 November, which means that workers must either be vaccinated, have recovered or have a negative test (in German geimpft, genesen, getestet).
“I do not think that in six weeks the situation will be such that we can take back the measures. “So we’re probably going to have a 2G Christmas,” Salenberg told the Kronen Zeitung in an article published today.
“We will most likely have 2G measures for Christmas and New Year’s Eve,” Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler told the newspaper.
The number of new cases today fell slightly to 8,554, according to Interior Ministry figures.
Austria, with a population of 8.9 million, has a total of 883,887 cases of COVID-19 and 11,502 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
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