IndustriousAngel

Same here in Austria - but econimists are counting on increased cases of bankrupcy once the reliefs are done and the epidemic is over ... we have quite a big share of tourism in our GDP and that will take a looong time to recover. That's a specific problem for Austria, though.

No, from what I've read, no severe cases.

Here in Tyrol, we had some confirmed re-infections this year, all of them with the SA variant

that's correct, Israel is running into a vaccer wall - religious nuts (Jews as well as Muslims) and a few other ones as well I'd guess. Numbers falling as they do is excellent news though, maybe 60% is really enough. (don't forget that those who got infected also do have some immunity, so you'll have to add those when considering herd immunity)

In Austria's immediate neighbourhood, the situation in Hungary is deteriorating quickly ... they're now at 250 Covid19-deaths/day average, on a population of less than 10mil. This despite the fact that Hungary is making a big vaccination effort, using whatever they can get their hands on (russian and chinese vaccines plus those from the EU) so they're miles ahead of Austria (2,6mil shots administered in Hungary as of yesterday, compared to Austria's 1,5mil). This impacts the east of Austria, too, since there's a lot of traffic/commuting ...

yep, won't work, somewhere in the world the virus will continue to exist - there are still countries that don't acknowledge the problem, not only North Korea, also some central Asian states. In other countries it's so widespread it's impossible to control. So the vaccines are really the only viable solution.

Excellent if true!

Think so, too. Here in Austria, we've got both variants - UK in the East, SA in the West, and numbers are rising pretty steeply in the East while it's still halfway stable in the West. In the long run, a more infectuous variant will displace less virulent variants.

Here in Tyrol, there were 6 patients this year who got re-infected with Covid19 (all of them had it the first time in Oct/Nov, so not that long ago) - all of them with the South-African strain, so there's definitely a problem here. At least all of them showed only mild symptoms. https://www.tt.com/artikel/30779907/sechs-tiroler-erneut-infiziert-nun-suedafrika-variante-nachgewiesen

Here in Austria, testing goes trough the ceiling ... with the easing of the lockdown and the re-opening of shops and so on, there came accompanying measures - especially that you need a negative test no older than 48hrs to, say, get your hair cut, or go skiing. That seems to be a big incentive, testing stations are working at their limit since Monday (much more tests than in December before Christmas). Plus, with the re-opening of schools, every single pupil gets tested I think once a week - those are self-tests, so probably not very accurate, but they did find some hidden infections; I'd guess from pupils which were indeed serious spreaders (high viral load). Overall infection numbers are still dropping a bit; too early for the uptick since Monday of course, but with a rate of 1 - 1,5% positive PCR tests the spread sems to be largely under control atm (worst region is Carinthia with 2,4% positive tests, here in Tyrol it's 1,2%). Here in Tyrol there's even more testing since we've got a lot of the South-african strain; borders from Northern Tyrol to neighbouring regions are closely watched, you also need a negative test - since there's a lot of commuting between Nothern Tyrol and Bavaria and/or Southern Tyrol, that's also driving up testing numbers. Plus, free tests are now administered at many pharmacies, too (makes it much easier for people with limited mobility). Overall, I'm not too sure if the re-opening didn't come a bit too early, but with the shithload of testing going on, it might just be enough to limit widescale spread. Let's hope for the best.

well, it's been too warm for snow down here (was only snowing higher than 1.100m) but I made two runs last weekend, Fri and Sat - what a difference such a little bit of Sahara sand makes 😲

My hometown (Innsbruck) is now at exactly 50 (7 day incidence/100k), been below 80 since christmas - but now with shops reopening and schools, too (at least up to 14 year olds), I guess we'll see an uptick next week.

here in Austria, admissions to shops are limited (1 customer / 20m², also in groceries where it was 10m² until today ...), that might be a possibility.

Hard lockdown ending in Austria as of today ... still no dining or bars, but all shops are open.

I don't think the russian vaccine is available in such quantities, either.