Vienna, other parts of Austria tighten coronavirus rules over Easter even as Germany’s Merkel reverses.

Vienna and other eastern regions of Austria are heading back into a lockdown in the coming weeks in an attempt to keep coronavirus case counts from spiralling out of control. The brunt of the shutdown will hit during the upcoming Easter holidays, with many businesses and other establishments set to shut down on April 1 and stay closed until April 6. The closures will affects most businesses, as well as hairdressers and masseuses. Stores that sell essential items will be exempted. Germany has shelved its planned lockdown.

Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said the shutdown was needed to stop numbers from rising and to give the region’s overworked hospitals a chance to catch a breather. At the moment, the seven-day incidence per 100,000 residents in the region is above 300, compared to a nationwide average of 247. Anschober said the agreement was only reached after a day of negotiations with the heads of the affected regions. The rules also call for people to stay home, only leaving their houses during the holidays for walks, exercise and urgent needs. Schools will head into a week of online lessons after the lockdown.

The agreement would also see sharpened rules for mask-wearing and tougher coronavirus testing requirements for commuters who travel from the eastern regions to work in other parts of the country. On Monday, the federal government had decided not to tighten rules countrywide despite spiking numbers.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel suddenly scrapped plans on Wednesday for a stricter national lockdown over Easter, saying the decision – reached after hours of negotiations with state leaders – was a “mistake.” “The idea of ​​an Easter shutdown was conceived with the best of intentions, because we absolutely have to slow down and reverse the third wave of the pandemic. Nevertheless, the idea of ​​the so-called ‘Easter rest’ was a mistake,” she told journalists. “I know that this entire process will trigger additional uncertainty. I deeply regret this and I ask all citizens for their forgiveness,” she said.

Merkel explained that Monday’s decision to tighten an existing lockdown over the Easter period would have been too difficult to enforce from a legal and a logistical standpoint. The plan had included shutting down or vastly limiting business activities on April 1 and 3 – a Thursday and a Saturday. “Far too many questions, from the continued payment of wages due to the lost working hours, to the situation in the shops and factories, have shown that the plan cannot be implemented, at least not in such a short time,” Merkel said.

It was initially unclear whether was an alternative plan in place to contain a severe third wave of infections, but Merkel later clarified that the default plan was the full implementation of a so-called “emergency brake” to suspend all planning reopenings. Merkel and her grand coalition – made up of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) – have come under severe criticism over what was perceived as a bungled coronavirus containment strategy. The country’s slow vaccine rollout has added fuel to the debate. Several lawmakers and some of the country’s 16 state premiers praised Merkel for taking responsibility for the mistake.

“In the end it is better to clear it up now if it is not legally viable,” Markus Soeder, the powerful premier of the southern state of Bavaria, was cited as saying. Criticism of the agreement earlier this week had centred on the fact that despite marathon talks, key elements of the plan remained unclear. Industry and business leaders said they had been left in the dark as to what the Easter closures meant in practice.

Source: The Vanguard

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