Advertisement

Today in Austria: A roundup of the latest news on Tuesday

Emma Midgley
Emma Midgley - [email protected]
Today in Austria: A roundup of the latest news on Tuesday
Antoine Albert of New Caledonia participates in a Windsurf Freestyle Show during the Surf World cup 2019 at Neusiedler See lake in Neusiedl am See, Austria on May 01, 2019. (Photo by JOE KLAMAR / AFP)

Find out what's going on in Austria on Tuesday, with The Local's short roundup of today's news.

Advertisement

Mini heatwave is on the way

A mini heatwave is on the way for the east of Austria. On Tuesday temperatures will hit between 27 to 35 degrees with the highest values ​​between Linz and Vienna, while in the west a few thunderstorms are gradually expected.

On Wednesday, up to 35 degrees are forecast between Lower Carinthia and Burgenland, while in Vorarlberg it remains over ten degrees cooler with rain showers.

On Thursday there will be an even stronger contrast within Austria. At Lake Constance it will be wet at barely more than 20 degrees, while on Lake Neusiedl, temperatures are forecast to reach 37 degrees, according to broadcaster ORF.

At the weekend, the temperatures in east and west Austria level out again, with highs of around 27 degrees and changeable weather conditions. 

Advertisement

Seven day incidence is 7.5

In Austria the seven-day incidence, or the number of new infections with the coronavirus in the past seven days per 100,000 inhabitants, is 7.5. No federal state has a value above 20. Carinthia (0.9) has the lowest, Vienna with 17.8 is the state with the highest number of infections.

There are currently 125 people in the hospital due to the coronavirus, 44 of them in intensive care units.

City of Vienna defends testing of young children

The City of Vienna has defended itself against criticism of the  tightened Covid-19 test measures for children. The Vienna Covid-19 project manager Ursula Karnthaler defended the measures to broadcaster ORF. "Unfortunately, Corona is not over yet," said Karnthaler.

ORF reports that in Vienna, only 69 children between the ages of six and 12 have currently tested positive for Covid-19. However, in contrast to the rest of Austria, in Vienna a test is compulsory for this age group to access restaurants, cafes and swimming pools - or anywhere with the 3G (recovered, tested negative or vaccinated) requirement.

Advertisement

ÖVP party holds steady in polls

A survey by opinion pollster IFDD sees Sebastian Kurz’s centre-right governing ÖVP party in a stable position at 33 percent of the vote, while the centre left opposition SPÖ party is down 3 percent to 24 percent. The slide follows a party conference that indicated limited support for current party leader Rendi-Wagner. The far-right FPÖ party remains at 18 percent, while the Greens and NEOS both gained a point to 12 percent, the Kronen Zeitung newspaper reports. 

'Ibiza' trial begins

As The Local reported yesterday, the first criminal trial based on the investigation into Austria’s Ibiza video scandal will start on Tuesday at 9 am.

The scandal centres around events on May 17, 2019, when the former Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and the then FPÖ member of the National Council, Johann Gudenus, were recorded in conversation with fake Russian oligarch niece, speaking among many other things, of the possibility of making donations for the FPÖ through party-affiliated associations .

READ MORE: ‘Ibizagate’: What you need to know about the scandal which continues to grip Austrian politics

Austria's Green Pass now available for Android

The app for the green pass, made available by the Ministry of Health in cooperation with the Federal Computing Center, is now also available for the Android operating system.

The digital application was already available for Apple products (iOS) and Huawei devices last week. It is now also available for download for Android devices in Google's Play Store , according to the health department on Monday, Der Standard newspaper reports. 

Advertisement

Opposition leader calls for more imaginative vaccine campaigns

The opposition SPÖ leader,  Pamela Rendi-Wagner has called for special campaigns in Austria to ensure vaccination targets are met. The politician, who is also a trained infectiologist,  suggests giving the vaccine in supermarket parking lots, transport hubs, sporting events and fitness centres, Der Standard newspaper reports. 

Thank you to science from Austrian government

The Austrian federal government will officially say “thank you” to science today. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) will speak at a festive event "in honour of science" in the Aula der Wissenschaft in Vienna to give an outlook on the priorities after the crisis and to draw a summary of the past months. The focus of the speech is on the lessons learned from the crisis.

 

 

 

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also