VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria’s daily tally of new coronavirus infections surpassed 9,000 for the first time on Thursday, with the government coming under growing pressure to introduce tougher measures to bring the outbreak under control.
Earlier this month Austria introduced a partial shutdown until the end of November to slow the spread of the virus. Restaurants, cafes and bars have closed to all but takeaway service while theatres and museums have shut. A nighttime curfew is in place from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Still, infections keep rising.
A total of 9,262 new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, data from the interior and health ministries showed. The tally was even higher than the 9,105 reported by newspapers Kronen Zeitung and Oesterreich earlier on Thursday.
The previous record was 8,241, set on Saturday. The first wave of infections peaked at 1,050 a day in March.
The Alpine republic’s government has said it will assess the situation on Friday, 13 days after it announced the curfew and partial shutdown, and might announce a further tightening of restrictions. It has said 6,000 new daily infections is the level at which hospitals will eventually be overwhelmed.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Gareth Jones/Mark Heinrich)
