Austria Advises Citizens Against Non Urgent Travel to the Tirol
8th February 2021
Last modified on May 13th, 2021
Variant coronavirus cases have been detected & there are fears of it spreading to other parts of Austria as the recent national lockdown measures are lifted. The Federal Government & the Tirol authorities are in discussions on an agreed solution. A decision was to have been made on Sunday now the Federal government has issued travel advise ahead of an expected joint announcement on Tuesday. UPDATE
The Federal government has issued a travel warning for the entire Tirol.
It encourages people to avoid all non-essential travel to the province.
The federal government has also urged everyone who has been in Tirol in the past two weeks to get tested immediately.
The measures stops short of full quarantine for the Tirol as discussions are ongoing.
The Austrian government is in talks with Tirol authorities over what steps should be taken after mutations of the virus variant first detected in South Africa were found.
The Austrian federal government issued the travel warning for the state on Monday afternoon.
It may go further.
The Tirol meanwhile has said it will tighten restrictions but does not want a full quarantine.
The Federal Health Minister, Rudolf Anschober, and the governor of the Tirol, Günther Platter, have continued their talks after failing to agree on measures over the weekend.
A decision is now expected on Tuesday as the Tirolean authorities have put forward their own measures to avoid a provincewide quarantine order.
We reported on the quarantine threat and examined possible measures in this earlier article on PlanetSKI.
Proposed New Restrictions
Austrian media reports that people living in the Tirol may only be allowed to travel to other federal states in Austria in exceptional cases – to work or in the event of illness.
There are also plans by the Tirol to stop people visiting second homes or ski apartments/chalets in the mountains.
It wants to ask people to avoid unnecessary trips.
It says cable car trips in ski resorts should only be allowed only with a negative PCR test result.
It wants comprehensive PCR tests to be introduced in areas with a high seven-day incidence.
Most new cases are in the Schwaz area.
The respected virologist, Dorothee von Laer, says the Tirol is now considered a European hotspot for the South African mutant of the coronavirus (B.1.351).
The mutation is not only more contagious, but tests have shown vaccines might not work as well against the new variant.
165 cases of the mutation have so far been confirmed with 8 people still positive.
There are currently around 230 suspected cases of this variant.
Here on PlanetSKI we will update as soon as we hear more…
