Almost four million confirmed corona cases: infections are increasing rapidly worldwide

15,833 cases were reported until Saturday (9:00 a.m.), with one deceased plus since Friday there have been 615 fatalities so far.

The number of people currently suffering from coronavirus in Austria has dropped below 1,300. The Ministry of Interior statistics showed 1,290 infected, which is a minus of 34 compared to Friday. 309 people were hospitalized on Saturday morning, 79 were in intensive care units. That is 30 or two less than 24 hours earlier. 13,928 people are considered to have recovered.

Border traffic relaxed on Mother’s Day

There will be relief for trips from North to East Tyrol or vice versa just in time for Mother’s Day, as transit through South Tyrol is again permitted. According to information from the Ministry of Health, care should be taken to ensure that trips for family purposes, professional trips and trips to health care are possible without further restrictions. At the same time, the Italian regulation also applies, according to which a notification must be made to the South Tyrolean sanitation company when traveling through South Tyrol.

Visits to Bavaria allowed

It was already announced on Friday that Bavaria and Salzburg have agreed to simplify border traffic on Sunday. The “family-oriented border controls” agreed with the federal government would also apply to Upper Austria, it said on Friday from the office of Governor Thomas Stelzer (VP). For the visits of relatives on Mother’s Day, “a credibility on the border” is sufficient. On Monday, the current entry requirements would apply again, it said.

Visits from abroad

Furthermore, family members abroad are allowed to visit their relatives in Austria. For entry without a quarantine obligation, according to the applicable regulations, there must be a “reason for special consideration in the family”. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health says there is no directive from the health authorities, which “reasons” these are in detail. However, one does not want to “tear families apart”.

No mouth protection recommended at birth

The health ministry also made it clear on Saturday that wearing a mouth and nose protector (MNS) during childbirth is not recommended from a medical point of view. A corresponding guideline will be presented. Hospitals would have to take other appropriate protective measures to protect their staff, the elderly and children. Until now, this was not uniformly regulated in Austria; in some hospitals, mothers had to wear mouth and nose protection (MNS), in others not.

Leader: Russia, Brazil, USA

Internationally, Russia and Brazil are the leaders behind the USA in terms of the number of new infections, both countries counting more than 10,000 new infections in the 24-hour window. This means that Russia already has almost 200,000 infections, making it number five worldwide. The number of deaths in Russia remained low at 1,827 – at least according to official data – while 751 further fatalities in Brazil brought the total to more than 10,000 – the sixth country worldwide.

One of these other five countries is Francewhere the curfew will be relaxed on Monday after almost two months of lockdown. Around 400,000 shops and service companies open again. However, cafes and restaurants, theaters, cinemas, concert halls and sports venues must remain closed. In the Paris region and three other regions in the northeast, however, the strictest regulations still apply nationwide. Parks and department stores remain closed, local transport is severely restricted.

In Italy many Italian regions, however, want to follow the example of South Tyrol and are putting pressure on the government in Rome to relax the precautionary measures even more. They are demanding that retail, tourism and gastronomy, which should only start again on June 1, be able to open earlier. The regions advocate a geographically differentiated approach. Thanks to its autonomy, South Tyrol has already loosened individual regulations, e.g. All retailers are allowed to resume operations.

In Japan again, after criticism, the methods for coronavirus tests should be improved. The government plans to approve test kits next week that could detect coronavirus antigens in as little as 15 to 30 minutes. Antigen tests are often used in flu studies. An already resolved relaxation of the criteria for the tests overruled a rule that previously only people with at least 37.5 degrees fever could be tested for at least four days.

China, the starting point of the pandemic, announced on Saturday a reform of the country’s disease prevention and early warning systems for epidemics. According to the National Health Commission, a centralized and efficient chain of command is to be established, and prevention and early warning systems are to be modernized. In addition, in the fight against epidemics, the use of large amounts of data should be increasingly used.

He finally sees himself on a good path Iran, since only 50 new fatalities and 1,520 new infections were recorded within 24 hours. In the country hard hit by the virus, there have been almost 105,000 infected and more than 6,500 dead so far. However, none of the more than 275,000 dead worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University, recorded the Frer Islands. In addition, all 187 infected people are cured. The islands belonging to the Danish kingdom are therefore officially corona-free. According to Prime Minister Baldur a Steig Nielsen, the country will soon return to normal.