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Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz: Ski season almost only for locals
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Georg Hochmuth / dpa
Austria only wants to allow the ski season to take place under severe restrictions.
The government in Vienna announced that there was a ten-day quarantine period from December 7th to January 10th.
The goal is to curb tourism to a large extent.
The government is relying on a consistent border regime so that the virus is not carried into the country by returnees or tourists, said Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
The threshold for risk areas is more than 100 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 14 days.
This applies in practice to all neighboring countries and especially to the Western Balkans, it said.
Kurz promises more compensation
All restaurants and hotels must remain closed until January 7th.
There will be economic compensation, said Kurz.
The lifts in the ski areas are allowed to open from December 24th - and can therefore mainly be used by locals.
There is heated debate in the EU about the opening of ski areas.
Germany and Italy had spoken out in favor of closure.
Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) now welcomed the Austrian quarantine requirement.
In the winter months at the beginning of last year, the virus was spread across Europe due to the return traffic from skiing holidays, said Spahn after a video conference with his EU colleagues.
The problem is not skiing per se, "but the activities around it."
Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder also described the quarantine requirement in neighboring Austria as "correct and understandable".
On Twitter, the CSU boss also wrote: »Even if it's difficult: safety comes first.
The holidays must not become a risk. "
So far, Söder has not commented on whether ski lifts in the Bavarian winter sports areas will open during the Christmas holidays.
So far, the only thing that is certain is that the facilities will remain closed until December 20th as part of the extended partial shutdown.
Exit and contact restrictions in Austria slightly relaxed
At the same time, after the end of the current lockdown in Austria, shops and museums are allowed to reopen on December 6th.
The compulsory schools will also be reopened.
Exit restrictions then still exist between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
In addition, people are allowed to meet again with members of another household.
The cinemas in Austria will remain closed for the time being.
"The falling numbers are a success, but no reason to give the all-clear," said Kurz.
An overload of the health system has been prevented so far.
He called on citizens to participate in the upcoming mass tests.
In Vienna, Tyrol and Vorarlberg, people can be tested from Friday.
This is followed by other federal states.
The experts hope that several million people will take part in order to break the chains of infection.
In Austria, the number of new infections has decreased significantly due to the lockdown that has been in place since mid-November.
However, the downward trend is less strong than hoped.
On Wednesday, 3972 new infections were recorded within one day.
In relation to the number of inhabitants, this value is several times higher than in Germany.
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mes / dpa / AFP