A man wearing a FFP2 mask walks on a street in Vienna, Austria, on Jan. 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Guo Chen)
Starting Feb. 5, restaurants and shops across the country will be allowed to open until midnight with the lifting of the current 10 p.m. curfew, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer told a news conference here Saturday.
VIENNA, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Austria on Saturday announced plans to relax COVID-19 restrictions in February despite high infection numbers in recent days.
Starting Feb. 5, restaurants and shops across the country will be allowed to open until midnight with the lifting of the current 10 p.m. curfew, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer told a news conference here Saturday.
From Feb. 12, there will no longer be a testing or vaccine requirement in the retail sector; and starting Feb. 19, people with a negative coronavirus test result but no proof of vaccination or recovery will again be able to visit restaurants and tourist attractions.
A staff member checks 2G certifications at a store in Vienna, Austria, on Jan. 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Guo Chen)
The move came amid a recent surge in infections in Austria driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant. On Saturday, the country reported nearly 35,000 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24 hours, according to the Austrian Press Agency.
However, pressure on hospitals has eased as Omicron has led to less severe outcomes, and the current Omicron wave is expected to peak around Feb. 7-9, Katharina Reich, director general for public health, said at the news conference.
Nehammer also said that the situation of the hospitals is stable and at a predictable level.
A staff member checks 2G certifications at a bookstore in Vienna, Austria, on Jan. 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Guo Chen)■
