Corona measures. Further easing for schools, shops and retirement homes came into force on Saturday.
Vienna. The obligation to wear a mask in schools ceases when the students return from Pentecost on June 3. That was announced by Education Minister Heinz Faßmann (ÖVP) on Saturday. Timetables, “shift work” and distance rules remain in place, gymnastics lessons are possible on a voluntary basis in the afternoon. Singing in class is allowed again.
In Scandinavia, the openings of the schools, some of which were carried out before Austria, did not lead to an increase in the number of corona infections, Faßmann explained the easing. No schools were involved in the major cases of infection in recent weeks, such as the mail distribution centers in Vienna and Lower Austria or the Baptist service in Frankfurt. “Children can be infected, but they don’t spread,” says Faßmann.
At the schools, the division of classes from 19 pupils and shift work continues unchanged. The current timetables also remain in effect until the end of school. Gymnastics lessons can be added to regular lessons in the afternoon. Participation is voluntary for the pupils, the compulsory subject of exercise and sport remains suspended. The instructions drawn up by the Ministry of Health for mass sports apply to gymnastics lessons. He relies on the teachers here, Faßmann said, alluding to the fact that there are physical and less physical sports (such as volleyball).
At the same time, the square meter limitation for shops and museums that has applied since the beginning of May is history. Minister of Health Rudolf Anschober lifted the regulation that only one person per ten square meters is allowed in customer areas.
In Austria, at 497 on Saturday, for the first time since the decline in cases, there were fewer than 500 people who were actively affected by Covid-19. Only 98 people are hospitalized, of which only 23 are in intensive care. That is why the restrictive protective measures in hospitals, old people’s and nursing homes as well as facilities for the handicapped are relaxed, Anschober explained. ?
(“Die Presse”, print edition, May 31, 2020)
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