- On Monday, Austria announced the timetable for starting to leave the coronavirus containment. Just as the shops of essential products have been opened – as they are in Euskal Herria-, after next weekend’s festivities, 14 shops of all classes will be able to open their doors if they are less than 400 square meters. Thereafter, all other activities will be standardised on time. Austria is the European country in which the COVID-19 tests have been used in the most widespread way, making the use of the mask among citizens of street relationships a standard, and consequently the lowest proportion of official positive ones and deaths.
As Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and the Reuters agency reported on Monday, Austria has already decided to open last week all small trade plus bricolage stores and to embark on the road to the end of the population lockdown. Kurz said that it is possible that Austria has taken the measures before other countries and that the citizens have respected the containment well.
Fifteen days after the economic ice resumes, the doors to shops and shopping centres of over 400 square metres will be reopened on 1 May. Then, by mid-May, the opening time will come for hotels and restaurants. Parties, concerts and other mass events will have to wait until the end of June for the party attendees to enjoy their performances.
Last Friday, 3 April, Kurz asked the Austrians to continue the social distancing measures and not to hold their Easter holiday with great meetings of family and friends. These are the words he highlighted in his appearance before the Austrian Parliament: The 33-year-old Prime Minister always appeared with face mask before and after his speech, Bloomberg said in a statement.
The citizen gave a very clear warning: "We are not going to draw hasty conclusions, because there are positive signs. I promise you that if the numbers confirm these signs, we will do our best to return step by step to normal." Last Sunday, 5 April, it set as the next milestone to ratify the exit plan for the confinement and, once it has been completed, today it has specified the following deadlines.
Austria was one of the first cities to close schools and shops after the coronavirus appeared in several Alpine ski resorts. Last Monday, March 30, the use of face masks became a mandatory standard for daily shopping. He also launched a program to test potential carriers of COVID-19. To better understand what it was based on, see the two data shown by Austria on 5 April: until 5 April COVID-19 has caused 11,934 official infections and 204 deaths, accounting for 1.7% of the contagion. For example, on the same day 11,184 official cases and 693 deaths were recorded in the Basque Country, accounting for 6.2% of the cases, 3.6 for those in Austria.
The Austrian media are emphasising that the freezing of the economy on time will extend the confinement of the population until the beginning of May and the compulsory use of the mask will be extended to all services that will be opened up.
SEBASTIAN Kurz is a member of the Austrian People’s Party and is part of the green environmentalist coalition he runs in Vienna.