Is Austria winning the war against coronavirus?

After the Austrian government took increasingly drastic measures in March to contain the coronavirus, the country successfully flattened the curve in April, and gradually reopened shops, schools and restaurants again in May. Life in Vienna got back to something like normality with summer arriving in June.

Now, with cases rising again in Austria – but being tested, tracked and traced – society is trying to find a new balance between containing the virus and living daily life.
With this final post, I close this blog.
Austria won the battle, will it win the war, remains to be seen.

Clearly face masks should have remained mandatory

July 8, 2020:

“This is not the path we envisioned to tread,” said Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) when announcing renewed official travel warnings for several countries in Southeastern and Eastern Europe today.
After an uptick in new cases in Upper Austria and other regions, the number of new coronavirus infections per 100,000 inhabitants now stands at 1.1 at the national level. A total of 1,086 people in Austria have an infective coronavirus infection.
Schallenberg pointed out that “more and more recent cases can be traced” to people traveling back and forth between countries, hence he issued an “urgent appeal” not travel there at the moment.

June 30, 2020:

More than 80 new coronavirus cases were registered in Austria in the last 24 hours, the highest number in several weeks.
With active coronavirus cases in Vienna stable around 272 in the last weeks, case numbers in other regions have recently been on the rise again. Concretely, the federal states of Upper Austria (124), Lower Austria (101), Styria (32) and Salzburg (32) have seen an uptick of cases.

June 20

The London-based Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) judged the public policy response of mostly advanced OECD countries to the pandemic in a new index.  Austria shares the 2nd place on the index with Germany and behind just New Zealand, among a number of mostly rich countries that were analyzed.

The policy responses of the UK, Italy, Spain and Belgium were judged as “poor,” landing the countries at the bottom of the list.

One wonders if it is smart to ease travel restrictions when New Zealand who celebrated being Covid-19 free a week ago registered today 2 new cases; two British ladies who managed to circumvent prevention measures and just roamed around the country undetected.

On June 15, Austrian Airlines (AUA) will resume scheduled flights on Monday. The AUA will start to fly to 20 destinations in Europe, flights to long-distance destinations will resume on July 1.

By 6 June Austria seems to have contained the virus. Things are reopening and they are getting back to something like normal life.
Yet people are warned that when you let down your guard there could be a resurgence of infections. 
Austrians cannot be complacent. Relaxing social distancing measures too quickly and permitting “superspreader” events are the leading causes for multiple waves. 
The good news is that they can substantially reduce the magnitude of a second wave or prevent it by social distancing practices, wearing face masks, hand washing, and limiting the number of superspreader events.
Mass testing for active cases and for people who have already had COVID-19 along with contact tracing, rapid identification of new clusters and immediate isolation of potentially infected people will be crucial for preventing the next wave.
If we can’t avoid the second wave, we need to prepare for it, and that means ensuring that there’s an ample supply of personal protective equipment, ventilators, medications, testing kits, and qualified healthcare workers. Austria is well prepared at this level. 

A few tips to help prevent and/or prepare for a second wave

• If you’ve been in contact with someone you know has COVID-19, or you think that you have symptoms, call the coronavirus hotline and immediately isolate yourself.
• Keep washing or sanitizing your hands, and don’t touch your face if your hands aren’t clean.
• Stock up on face masks and wear them in public and crowded places.
• Get your yearly flu shot to reduce your risk of being sick with the flu and COVID-19.
• Work from home as much as you can because there is less chance of contracting the virus when you’re home, and fewer people in public places also reduce viral spread.
• Avoid crowds and superspreader events.
• Find a new way to greet friends and family without touching them by waving, putting your hand on heart, blowing a kiss to them, air-kissing, or bowing.

June 6, 2020:

Only 17 people are currently in an intensive care unit (ICU) for the coronavirus in all of Austria. The total number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals fell to 72.

Travel between Austria, Slovenia, Czechia and Hungary is now possible without restrictions. Austria opened the borders to all neighboring countries  except Italy. For Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary the same rules as before the pandemic will apply.

Calculations by the Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien) have shown the impact of the relatively early lockdown in Austria.
On March 16, the country shut down most of its public life and citizens massively reduced social interactions (by up to 90%).
Had the lockdown occurred seven days later, up to four times more cases of coronavirus would have occurred in Austria at the end of March (40,000 instead of 10,000 in reality), leading also to up to four times more patients needed intensive care (an estimated 1,000 in ICUs instead of the 250 people in intensive care in reality).
The researchers thus underline how early actions helped the country get through the crisis without overburdening the healthcare system. They underline that contact tracing and constant testing is now crucial to keep the situation under control

June 1, 2020:
Keeping our fingers crossed!

The number of people in Austria suffering from COVID-19 continues its steep downward trend. At the beginning of April, there were 9,200 known active infections in Austria; at the beginning of May, there were 1,800 patients; now, at the beginning of June, this number fell to 378 active infections.

Update May 25, 2020:
ٍSeems that until now the ''new normal'' is working.

At Vienna’s AKH General Hospital, Europe’s first successful lung transplant for a COVID-19 patient was performed. The 45-year old patient with no pre-existing medical conditions fell ill with the coronavirus eight weeks ago. The disease damaged her lungs so much that doctors said she could not have survived without a transplant. Now, she’s recovering and “doing doing brilliantly” given the circumstances, the doctors at the AKH say.

Follow up, testing, tracing, taking measure seems the way to go.

New coronavirus infections in Vienna have in recent weeks mostly taken place in known family clusters, announced the city’s bureau of sanitation. “The origins of very few cases remain unresolved,” said the director of the bureau, Ursual Karnthaler.

Several cases of coronavirus have emerged in distribution centers of the Austrian Post in Inzersdorf und Hagenbrunn in recent weeks. The City of Vienna has thus started to preemptively test all workers and replace them temporarily with mobilized militiamen. Two soldiers also tested positive for COVID-19. All soldiers will be tested too, now.

Facing covid-19 is not only medical in nature

The Austrian government will set up a fund of €1 billion to the country’s municipalities to strengthen the regional economy after the coronavirus slump. 

Update 18 May
+0/3% increase in infection rate has been stable since mid April, the time of the first easing of lockdown. But the RO increased for the first time from 0.78 to 1.07.
Still the opening plans remain the same with the return of 700,000 students to school under very strict measures. Outside pools are open with strict measures.
I wonder what this means. For schools it might be possible, but for swimming?!
Does not make sense. I hope it is not a wrong decision.
But then no real worries as medical system and hospital are working at regular rate, so in case of an outbreak, the country can cope.

Update 15 May
Vienna municipality promotes eating out

Stage 3 opens restaurants today. Many efforts are made to promote the economy. If this efforts succeeds without starting a new wave, then Austria is an experience in handling coronavirus that needs to be studied and considered all over the world.

Update 5 May
Inspirational speech by the President of Austria

Caught my attention is that he addressed ''Dear Austrians and all people who live in Austria!''

He mentioned culture before economy ''The medicine we swallow is bitter: isolation, restriction of personal rights, widespread standstill of our cultural life and economy.''

He presented a reformist vision of the future with social and environmental justice. ''I believe in seizing the opportunity in the crisis, overcoming unemployment and making the turn towards a sustainable economy. With nature, not against it.''

Making travel easier from and to Vienna airport

From Monday passengers can have a molecular biological (polymerise chain reaction or PCR) COVID-19 test at the airport, and get the result in two to three hours, the airport said.  

The airport tests, can also be taken by passengers leaving Vienna to demonstrate their virus-free status at their destination.

"Air travel, whether business journeys or urgent trips...will thus become safer and easier," 

Working on relaunching tourism

 An initiative, proposed by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, aims to provide a way for countries, many of which are heavily dependent on tourism, to begin opening borders without the fear of letting in virus carriers. 

The proposal comes after the leaders of the seven nations took part in a videoconference on April 24 in which they discussed various strategies to deal with the virus and to gradually open the countries’ economies after weeks of tight restrictions.

The countries involved are until this date are Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Greece, Czechia, and Israel.

Update 1st of May
The number are still decreasing.
The Coronavirus in Austria & Vienna | Re-emerging From Quarantine

Update 20 April
Keeping my fingers crossed.

The number of active coronavirus cases in Austria has been dropping fast as a proportion of tested vs confirmed cases. In Vienna, there are now three times more recovered patients than active cases. Death rates per 100,000 is 3 times lower than Sweden and 5 times lower than UK. 

Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) called a decline of this speed and magnitude “unique in Europe.”

The plan for the 'new normal' has been summarized for ease of information 

In Austria as of April 11, 2020:

• The daily number of people cured from the coronavirus in Austria has outstripped those of newly positively tested cases for several days now – that means the total number of infected people, as reflected by official testing, is in decline.
• Of a total of 13,561 positively tested cases of coronavirus in Austria:
• 6,620 people (48.82% of the total) are currently infected
• 6,604 people (48.70%) have already recovered
• 337 people (2.49%) passed away with or due to the disease
• Out of active cases, 1,036 people are currently hospitalized, 246 of which are in intensive care
• A third of the 1,058 intensive care units (ICUs) in Vienna’s hospitals is available, as of 9 April. Austrian hospitals have also accepted intensive care patients from France in recent days.

Austria is a small country so rarely mentioned when the media talks about Covid-19.
Yet it is a good example of what we can do right on more than a sector or level.

First of all, and most importantly , the health system is very good and compared to the Western world it has one of the highest rate of ICU per person and no shortage in protective gear for medical staff.

Second a plan of action was set since the beginning, self-isolation instructions until 13 April. So people knew what they had to face. In parallel, very high levels of testing and evaluation. Noting that testing done in residence, people did not have to go to hospitals.

On Monday, April 6, the government announced that the current measures have been prolonged until the end of April and unveiled the plan for the coming months.
Starting April 14, small stores (<400 square meters of size) and DIY and garden centers may reopen under certain restrictions (with only a small number of customers at any one time).
A protection for face and mouth (masks or scarfs) will also become mandatory on public transport.
Starting May 1, stores, shopping malls and hairdressers may reopen.
Starting mid-May, restaurants, cafes and hotels may reopen.
All public events will remain cancelled until the end of June.
No school until mid-May and universities will remain closed for the rest of the semester.
If infection number start to rise again, measures can also be toughened once again (Kurz called it a “Notbremse” or emergency break).
Austria’s Bundesgärten (federal gardens) will open on April 14, with controls at entrances to prevent overcrowding.
People are aurgently requested not to travel for celebrating Easter with their families in different households, to keep the infection rate down.
Further measures will be evaluated at the end of April.

Third, and since the start assistance for workers. Anybody can apply for short term unemployment guaranteeing 90% of salary  and this applied for self-employed. So people did not have to worry about their livelihood and we did not see any people breaking the self isolation because they needed to work. Also businesses did not panic. For example

Austria’s Federal Railways (ÖBB) have put 10,000 employees on Kurzarbeit (short-time work).  

The federal government announced that they will guarantee 80-100% of emergency loans for businesses for a period of up to five years.

Four, and maybe due to trusting their government and a natural cultural tendency to comply with laws and recommendations, Austrian did and are complying to the letter with self isolation regulation.

Let's hope that the slow come back to normal first step on April 14 succeeds and there is no surge in infections.