As a result, one is not immune in this country from a renewed rise in the number of sick people, even in view of the beginning holiday season.

In Austria, the containment was “caught relatively well,” said Thurner. As a result, one is not immune in this country from a renewed rise in the number of sick people, even in view of the beginning holiday season.

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Virologist insists on distance rule

There is currently a “relatively low basic activity” of the Covid 19 virus in Austria, “but there is background activity”. If the distance rule is ignored, “you give the virus the chance to continue to spread very quickly,” pleaded the virologist for more caution. Direct contact from person to person “is the ultimate source of transmission”. Therefore one should approach further easing “with extreme caution”. The mask requirement in restaurants ends on Wednesday and all sports are allowed again.

Schober over 600 infected “worried”

Health minister too

Rudolf Anschober

(Greens) expressed concern about the current development and the regional outbreaks. In the coming days, therefore, the cluster formation will be checked particularly carefully. The reason for the increase could be the decrease in risk awareness among part of the population. “My urgent appeal therefore goes precisely to this part of the population not to be fooled by the weeks of good numbers,” said Anschober in a statement. “The virus is not on vacation, it is still among us and it is highly dangerous.”

about me essay“The virus is not on vacation, it is still among us and it is highly dangerous”

The Austrians should not be careless now, but take responsibility and continue to implement the measures. That duty that

Mouth and nose protection

(MNS) has been partially repealed, does not mean that the masks are now prohibited. “It makes sense to continue to carry the MNS on your own responsibility,” advised Anschober.

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The Ministry of Health and the Interior recently reported 69 new infections for a 24-hour window, of which Upper Austria (39) clearly accounted for more than half. This was followed by Vienna (12), Lower Austria (8), Salzburg and Styria (3 each), Burgenland and Tyrol (2 each). Only Carinthia and Vorarlberg reported no newly infected people.

WHO: The pandemic is far from over

Six months after the first reports of the new corona virus in Wuhan, China – and now more than ten million infections worldwide – the pandemic is far from over, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries to test, trace social contacts and impose quarantine rules.

“We all want this to be over, we all want to get on with our lives. But the harsh reality is: It’s not even close to over,” said Tedros. In view of the extent of the pandemic, which has now more than 500,000 deaths, he said: “This could have been prevented with the means available to us.”

“It’s not nearly over yet”

According to Tedro, the failure to implement basic countermeasures and a lack of unity within and between countries are responsible for the extent of the corona pandemic. “The worst is yet to come,” unless this political problem is addressed, said the WHO chief. “That’s why we have to join forces and fight this dangerous virus together.”

The WHO will send a team to China next week to further investigate the origin of the virus, Tedros announced. At the beginning of December, possibly even earlier, the first cases of a previously unknown lung disease occurred in the metropolis of Wuhan. On December 31, they were officially reported to the WHO.

Indications of second wave near Austria

The complexity researcher Stefan Thurner warns that developments that indicate a second wave of Covid 19 infections will spill over to Austria. In this country, too, there are first signs of regional shifts in this direction – for example in the Linz and Vienna area. The development of positively tested corona cases in a country comparison represents a new “corona traffic light” for the researchers.

In the traffic light system developed by scientists working with the head of the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) Vienna, several districts have switched from “green” to “yellow” again these days. This means that there the number of positive tested cases per 10,000 inhabitants has increased noticeably to over one compared to the past 14 days. This applies above all to Linz, Wels and the surrounding areas of these cities as well as St. Pölten and the Neunkirchen district (Lower Austria). Vienna remains “yellow” as before.

According to this system, the visualization researchers Johannes Sorger and Wolfgang Knecht have now constructed a similar traffic light on the basis of the worldwide Covid-19 cases compiled daily by the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA) per country, which is now online on the CSH website has gone. If you look at the daily case reports over time, a “second hill” is already showing in some countries, Thurner explained in an interview with the APA – “the second wave is here”.

Where the number of cases increases again

Second waves, separated from one another, can accordingly be seen particularly well in some countries that initially brought the epidemic under control. This is currently happening in Israel, for example, where the daily new cases were almost at zero. In Croatia, a “massive second hill” is currently emerging – with still few cases overall. A similar picture can be seen in almost the entire Balkans, Thurner explained.

The situation is somewhat different in the USA or Sweden, where, as is well known, a much less rigid containment course was followed. Thurner: “There the second wave travels into or over the first wave, so to speak.” This is because there have always been a relatively high number of cases and the numbers have not decreased as much in the past few weeks. These states now also appear in red in the traffic light system (more than ten cases per 10,000 inhabitants). This category also includes, for example, the Republic of Moldova, Saudi Arabia and Oman, South Africa and a number of South American countries.

“But there are also a lot of countries where it is becoming apparent that a second wave is just around the corner or where it is just beginning,” says the complexity researcher, who also has neighboring countries to Austria such as the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia or a Including Switzerland or other “model countries” such as Iceland or New Zealand. In Europe “in the next few days a lot will change in the direction of yellow (between one and ten cases per 10,000 inhabitants, note),” the scientist predicted.