Austria stated on Sunday it was tightening up border controls to all adjoining nations, claiming non-essential traveling should be protected against during the pandemic.
The transfer to tighten up border controls comes as the country is preparing to carefully loosen some limitations this coming week, consisting of letting non-essential stores and also schools resume.
” The boundary controls are meant to damage the chain of infection which with brand-new virus anomalies has grown extra dangerous,” Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer claimed in a statement.
” During the pandemic, traveling ought to be kept to an absolute minimum.”
The indoor ministry said that it had actually been in contact with German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer over the brand-new border measures which talks with ministers in other countries were to comply with.
Austria shares boundaries with Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary as well as Slovenia.
Austria reported 1,317 new infections on Sunday, bringing the total to 420,644 given that the start of the pandemic.
Twenty-two individuals passed away, increasing the country’s complete Covid-19 casualties to 7,906, according to official figures.
Austria in Talks to Buy 1M Sputnik V Doses
Austria said on Tuesday it was bargaining with Russia over the feasible purchase of 1 million dosages of the Sputnik V injection– which has yet to be accepted by EU regulatory authorities.
EU member Hungary is already administering Sputnik V and also a total amount of 57 nations have accredited its use, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), it is still under review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The office of Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz informed AFP on Tuesday that the talks had started on Feb. 26 over the distribution of 300,000 doses in April, 500,000 in May as well as 200,000 in early June 2021, however added that no contract had actually been made.
Earlier this month, Kurz as well as five various other central and also eastern EU leaders advised Brussels to find a “adjustment device” to fix what they called the unjust distribution of coronavirus vaccines within the bloc.
” If Austria obtains an additional 1 million vaccine dosages, we will certainly have the ability to go back to normality faster as well as can save several lives along with work,” Kurz stated.
” There need to be no geopolitical blinkers when it involves the injection. The only thing that should matter is whether the injection is efficient as well as risk-free, and not where it comes from.”