Austria's First Corona Cases Nearly Five Years Ago

Five years ago, the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Austria. On February 25, 2020, the first SARS-CoV-2 cases in the country were confirmed. An Italian couple received their positive test results in Innsbruck, having likely contracted the virus in Bergamo. Many people are haunted by the images from the city in northern Italy, where in March, coffins were transported by trucks to other cities because the crematoriums were overwhelmed.

Lockdowns and Vaccinations

With lockdowns and other measures, attempts were made internationally to slow the spread of the virus. The Austrian government imposed "exit restrictions" for the first time on March 16. On December 27, 2020, vaccinations officially began in this country and other EU states with a novel mRNA vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer.

As early as November 2019, there must have been cases of the initially mysterious illness in China, according to retrospective analyses, which later received the name Covid-19. The first officially confirmed infections were recorded in early December in the metropolis of Wuhan. The rest of the world learned of the "viral pneumonia of unknown cause" when Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) on December 31.

Millions of Corona Cases

As many infected people in China were already dying from the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, a large part of humanity had barely noticed the new respiratory disease. On January 10, 2020, the genome of the new virus was published, identified as a SARS virus (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Just three days later, the first test for the new virus was offered through the World Health Organization (WHO).

On January 30, the WHO declared a "public health emergency of international concern" - the pandemic - which was only declared over on May 5, 2023. In Austria, an infection with SARS-CoV-2 is no longer a notifiable disease as of July 1, 2023. By then, 6.08 million infections had been detected in this country, and 22,500 deaths were associated with the coronavirus.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.