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Today in Austria For Members

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

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Today in Austria: A roundup of the latest news on Friday
Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban (L) attends a joint press conference with the Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in an official visit to Vienna on Thursday. (Photo by Alex HALADA / AFP)

Schools should stay open in the autumn, storms hit Tyrol, Orban in Vienna and more news from Austria on Friday.

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No more widespread school closures in pandemic plan

There are no plans to switch to distance learning in schools across Austria in the variant management plan of the government, which lays out how to respond to an expected wave of infections in autumn. The chapter on schools says “comprehensive school closures are no longer an option” the Krone newspaper reports. However, individual classrooms may close in case of an outbreak. 

In the ideal or favourable scenarios, in which hospitals are not too crowded with Covid patients, rapid antigen testing in schools would be used to keep infections under control and masks and PCR tests introduced if schoolchildren came to school and then discovered they were infected. In the more serious scenario, in which a new variant brings a large wave of infections, all students, teaching and administrative staff will again carry out PCR testing once a week and children will have to wear masks outside the classroom. Vulnerable children and young people can be exempted from the school with a doctor's certificate. Whether school events such as ski weeks, language trips or hiking days are held depends on the risk assessment at the location. In the worst case scenario, masks would be worn by school children of all ages and school trips would be cancelled. 

READ MORE: Four options: These are Austria's autumn Covid lockdown plans

Storms in Tyrol 

Severe storms with heavy rain and hail caused problems in Tyrol on Thursday evening, and the Pass-Thurn-Straße between Tyrol and Salzburg had to be closed after mudslides. In Wattens (a district of Innsbruck-Land) there was a rock fall and in Serfaus there was a forest fire after a lightning strike. The fire brigade also had to be deployed in the Zillertal, where underpasses were flooded. Gerlosstraße (B165) had to be closed in Pinzgau, the Krone newspaper reports. 

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Wiener Linien test out four day week

Vienna’s Wiener Linien, which runs the capital’s public transport network, wants to offer its employees more flexible working hours with a four-day week from autumn. The aim is to attract 900 new employees. A total of 300 employees are planned for the pilot project broadcaster ORF reports. 

Linz stops lighting up its public buildings

Linz is responding to the impending expected energy shortage by reducing the lighting in public buildings. In the future, buildings and bridges should only be illuminated until 11 p.m. in the evening, broadcaster ORF reports.

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More strike misery from Lufthansa? 

More strike misery may be on the way from Lufthansa. After a strike by Lufthansa ground staff caused chaos earlier in the month, the German airline resumed normal operations on Thursday. However, now the pilots are voting on a strike which would fall at the height of the holidays. The ballot ends on Sunday, according to Marcel Gröls, chairman of collective bargaining policy at Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), speaking to the German news magazine Der Spiegel on Thursday. VC is demanding 5.5 percent more salary for 2022 and then automatic inflation compensation. In addition, the pilots are pushing for a uniform tariff structure. 

READ MORE: 


Orban visits Vienna 

A press conference of Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban took place during his visit to Vienna on Thursday. A joint conference with Serbia on the subject of migration and border protection was agreed. According to Nehammer, there are already 31,000 asylum applications in Austria this year. He said this was a challenge for Austria in addition to inflation, price increases, the energy crisis and the pandemic. 

Orban said he was the "only politician in the EU" opposed to immigration, but argued he was not racist. Nehammer criticized the EU Commission's slowness in terms of joint gas purchasing by the EU countries. "A common energy platform would be more important than ever," said Nehammer, so that the EU countries would not compete with each other. He called for more speed from Brussels, broadcaster ORF reports. 

READ MORE: Hungary's Orban visits Austria after 'race' row

The journalist Oliver Das Gupta tweeted: "As expected: #Orban uses the stage of the Vienna Chancellery and focuses on the topic of EU sanctions against Russia and European aid for Ukraine. He apparently wants to overturn both. That is the message going out from Vienna today."

https://twitter.com/oliverdasgupta/status/1552617431969021952?s=20&t=8c1qLfkhxrF-3bRAD-bMqg

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