‘My urgent plea for the next four weeks is: meet nobody’, says Chancellor Sebastian KurzAustria announced on Saturday that it is tightening its partial lockdown, including by closing non-essential stores and shifting schools to online teaching, amid galloping coronavirus infection rates in the Alpine nation. Watch | The immune system's response to a coronavirus attackChancellor Sebastian Kurz said the measures had become necessary because Austria has seen a weekly average of 550 new cases of coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants, a level 11 times greater than what authorities said would be sustainable. “If we don’t react massively, then there’s a great risk that the numbers will continue to rise or stay at a high level, Mr. Kurz told reporters in Vienna. “My urgent plea for the next four weeks is: meet nobody,” Mr. Kurz said. In addition to restaurants and leisure facilities, which have been shut for almost two weeks, authorities in Austria are ordering the closure of hairdressers, sports facilities and libraries.

Source: The Hindu November 14, 2020 19:30 UTC