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Austria’s current hospitalisation and ICU rates are similar to the peak of the third wave in April
On 1 October, the local government in Vienna issued new Covid rules, stricter than the ones on the federal level. What is colloquially known as the ‘2.5-G’ and the ‘2-G’ rules are part of the new restrictions and they will apply mainly in restaurants, nightclubs and big events.
2.5-G means that people need to be vaccinated, recovered or provide a PCR test (Antigen Tests do not apply). Meanwhile, the 2-G rule means that only vaccinated or recovered people can attend. The new measures come into effect on 1 October and will last until the start of November, at the earliest.
While Austria has a relatively decent vaccination rate, with 64% of its citizens taking at least one shot of the vaccine, they are not out of the woods yet. Having more than half of your population vaccinated certainly helps, however, hospitalisation rates are going up, especially for people in Intensive Care Units (ICU).
Hospitalisation and ICU numbers are currently at similar levels compared with April, near the peak of the third wave for Austria.
The governing principle of the German-speaking countries (Austria and Germany) when it comes to access to public spaces and lifting pandemic measures has been quite similar. It is based around the ‘3-G rule’, where the Gs stand for the German geimpft (vaccinated), genesen (recovered) and getestet (tested).
While the details vary from country to country and, sometimes, from state to state, the general idea behind the rule is – if you want free access to public events, restaurants and so on, you need to be tested, vaccinated or recovered.
Recently, the school year started in Austria with a very cautious approach to health measures in the educational system. While it is too early to judge whether those were effective, several schools across the country have gone into quarantine mode since 13 September.
Here are the new COVID-19 measures in Vienna:
3-G rule:
2.5-G rule:
2-G rule:
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