The rise in corona infections calls the federal government to the scene. As Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (VP) announced on Wednesday afternoon (local time) in New York, there will be a meeting of the Corona Task Force in the Federal Chancellery on Thursday. The aim was to “take a closer look at the topic of returning travelers and night-time gastronomy (…) in order to be able to act in the best possible way,” said Kurz. Health Minister Wolfgang Mckstein (Greens) had previously announced measures.
In the past few days, during his visit to the USA, Kurz had repeatedly pleaded that the pandemic should rely on personal responsibility instead of government enforcement measures. In this regard, he called the corona vaccination a “game changer” and expressed his expectation that the number of infections could soon rise sharply. Among other things, he was skeptical about the topic of closings of borders. “The virus does not stop at borders,” he said, among other things.
According to the Chancellor, the task force meets “with the involvement of all ministries”. He himself will not be able to attend in person because he is traveling on Thursday from New York to an IT conference in the Rocky Mountain state of Montana.
Mckstein: “We have to take countermeasures quickly”
Before the Chancellor’s statements, Mckstein had announced measures against the spread of the Delta variant. “We now have to take countermeasures quickly and are therefore intensively discussing which measures we could take in the short term,” tweeted Mckstein on Wednesday. He and Chancellor Kurz had previously sent an appeal to young people to get vaccinated. Kurz confirmed this appeal to journalists in New York on Wednesday. “The number of infections will increase, the virus will not go away,” he said.
Mckstein emphasizes that 90 percent of new infections can be traced back to the more contagious Delta variant. “This development is cause for concern and caution for me, because the infections will also lead to an increase in hospitalizations,” says the minister.
Video: Experts are of the opinion that the CoV situation in Upper Austria can remain under control in autumn if herd immunity is achieved. To do this, at least 80 percent of people have to get vaccinated against the virus.
There was no talk of further measures to contain the pandemic beyond vaccination yesterday afternoon. “In order to be able to maintain the opening steps, we now have to fight the Delta variant together. Complete vaccination protection is particularly effective for containing the Delta variant,” Mckstein had said. According to the government’s previous plans, the mask requirement should also drop for customers in the non-food trade on July 22nd.
At the weekend, Kurz had pleaded for more personal responsibility instead of state protection and said that vaccination would make the pandemic “from an acute challenge to society as a whole to an individual medical problem”. When asked about this, a spokeswoman for Mcksteins said, “these are not the words of the minister”. However, she did not want to commit to any specific measures yet. The talks are currently still ongoing and it is too early to say what can be implemented.
Video: Infectiologist Rainer Gattringer speaks in “Upper Austria today” about a possible CoV vaccination obligation in the health sector, the relaxation of the measures and the delta variant.
