Austria extends lockdown until December 11 – SME.sk

VIENNA. The main committee of the Austrian National Council on Tuesday afternoon, as expected, approved the extension of the lockdown in the country until December 11. It will pay for 20 days, as previously announced by the government.

The APA agency informed about it.

The Austrians extended the lockdown

The ruling coalition factions of the ÖVP and the Greens, as well as the opposition Social Democrats (SPÖ), voted in favor of the relevant order by Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein. The NEOS and the right-wing Free Party of Austria (FPÖ) did not support this step.

The adoption of the amendment to the Regulation was necessary on the grounds that, by law, restrictions on leave may be adopted in Austria only for ten days. The remaining rules resulting from the lockdown remain essentially unchanged.

The biggest change according to the amendment to the regulation concerns the shortening of the opening hours of trades, which was announced on Monday.

From Thursday, stores that may be open during the lockdown will have to close no later than 7 pm instead of the previously allowed sale by 9 pm. The sale of Christmas trees will be reclassified into the category of “agrarian shops”, which means that people will be able to buy them even during the lockdown.

The Ministry of Health also used this amendment to reduce the validity of vaccination certificates from 360 to 270 days. This rule enters into force on December 6.

Exceptions are persons who received two benefits vaccines against the covid and at the same time overcome the infection coronavirus. For them, the covidpas remain valid for 360 days.

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It all depends on further development

As of Monday, November 22, the whole of Austria is located in the lockdown. The curfew again applies to all residents. All business operations are closed except for basic service providers.

An FFP2 respirator is mandatory in public indoor areas and the two-meter distance rule again applies.

Mückstein said that any further extension of the lockdown in Austria will depend on the development of the epidemiological situation, but will certainly apply longer to unvaccinated people.

According to the Minister, the measures in place clearly have an effect, which can be seen, for example, in the decline in the seven-day incidence of the disease, but the numbers of those infected remain very high and the situation in hospitals is also dramatic.