The pandemic situation in densely populated Vienna of all places was remarkably stable for a long time. As recently as February, the city was able to be temporarily downgraded from red to orange at the corona traffic light as one of the few regions in Germany. At that time, the 7-day incidence was below 100.
There has long been no talk of that. Among other things, the British virus variant, which is widespread in Vienna, recently caused the number of infections to skyrocket. The 7-day incidence in Vienna is now around 230, making it one of the best in Austria.
Sensitive questions
This begs the question of what happens if the limit of 400 is exceeded in Vienna. Will there then be mandatory exit tests, such as in Wiener Neustadt? Is that even possible in a city with 1.9 million inhabitants? And what happens to the people who commute in and out every day? 270,000 come to the city every day (mainly from Lower Austria) to work here. Around 50,000 more are out-commuters from Vienna. In the office of City Councilor for Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ) the question of how to proceed when the 400 limit is exceeded is buttoned: “This question can only be discussed in conjunction with Lower Austria,” says a spokesman. After all, they would form a large region together.
One thing is already clear: Vienna will certainly not be able to “like the Gastein Valley” with strict exit restrictions. These are much more difficult to control.
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