According to Rauch, Austria should return to normal, and he also wants to learn lessons from the pandemic. Pandemic management is to be reorganized and appropriate plans drawn up, and the Epidemic Act amended. This is “not suitable for fighting a pandemic”. The Minister of Health does not believe that CoV will disappear, but sees Austria prepared: “We have vaccinations, we have medication, we are monitoring the variants.” Rauch also expects that the existing mask requirement in Vienna will soon be lifted.
At the end of 2022, the well-known Berlin virologist Christian Drosten drew attention to himself with the words that he believed the CoV pandemic was over. Experts working in Austria share Drosten’s findings. According to virologist Dorothee von Laer, SARS-CoV-2 will rank among the “more dangerous respiratory diseases”. She sees “good immunity” in the population through vaccinations and many infections that have been passed through.
Shortly before Christmas, the GECKO advisory body warned that the coronavirus should not be underestimated even when it becomes endemic. Experts agree that caution is still required.
Rauch sees no danger from the CoV wave in China
In the opinion of the Minister of Health, the current wave of CoV in China does not pose a major threat to Austria. “We have taken the necessary precautionary measures. I don’t currently see any signs of great danger.”
The almost three-year lockdown in China in the wake of the CoV pandemic ended last Sunday. The opening of the country came a month after the abrupt reversal in the rigorous zero-CoV strategy implemented since early 2020, which had been implemented with lockdowns for tens of millions, mass testing and forced quarantine. After new omicron variants had nevertheless spread explosively and the second largest economy in the world had increasingly suffered from the measures, the government abandoned the strategy.
A central point of the CoV regulations relaxed on Sunday relates to the previously strict quarantine requirement when entering China. China still requires a negative PCR test 48 hours before departure. Anyone who tests positive is not allowed to enter the country. However, it is no longer necessary to apply for your own entry permit at the embassy, but only to submit a health declaration.
Travel regulations tightened
Around the opening of China, many countries tightened their CoV regulations for travelers from China. Just like in Japan, which has been in force for a week, Austria and several other European countries have introduced a compulsory CoV test when entering from China. In the Travel Advice However, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, travel that is not absolutely necessary is still advised against in connection with the spread of CoV in China.
According to an expert, the peak of the current CoV wave in China should last for a few more months. Around 900 million of the approximately 1.4 billion people in the country are said to be infected with the corona virus, according to a study by the University of Beijing, according to the BBC. The number refers to the key date of January 11th. According to estimates by London-based data processor Airfinity, around 3.6 million people are currently infected every day in the world’s most populous country, while there are over 20,000 deaths every day.
Experts anticipate that infections in rural areas will increase around the Chinese New Year, which begins on January 21. Then hundreds of millions of Chinese travel from the cities to their hometowns in the countryside. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned this week of the dangers of this huge wave of travel. The WHO assumes that China is far from reporting all CoV deaths.
