Minister: Austria wants to abolish all Covid-19 measures this year

Austria wants to abolish all Covid-19 restrictions in the course of the year, Health Minister Johannes Rauch said in media comments published on Saturday.

Covid-19 would then no longer be a notifiable disease and the country would go back to normal, he told the Kronen Zeitung newspaper.

According to the minister, the massive Covid-19 wave in China no longer poses a major risk. "We have taken the necessary precautions. I don't see any signs of a major threat at the moment."

While the virus would not disappear, the minister said he considered Austria to be prepared: "We have vaccinations, we have medicines, we are monitoring the variants."

He thought the current mask mandate in public transport in Vienna will soon be dropped. Outside of the capital, there is little sign left of any Covid-19 regulations, athough an FFP2 mask is still mandatory when visiting health and care facilities.