Loacker: “Disoriented staggering”
The opposition immediately expressed their displeasure: “It was the federal government that got us into this mess. Not just any model calculations,” said SPÖ health spokesman Philip Kucher, annoyed at Health Minister Johannes Rauch’s (Greens) reasoning for withdrawing what was announced two weeks ago opening step. All Gecko recommendations warn of a constant drop in numbers before openings. But the government “wanted to organize a ‘Freedom Day’ in increasing numbers because the staging is more important to them than the experts who tried to warn them regarding the nonsense,” said Kucher in a broadcast.
NEOS pandemic spokesman Gerald Loacker was “upset” regarding the recent – “very spontaneously announced” – change in the corona rules. The increasing numbers were already foreseeable when the opening steps were announced – you also know that masks protect. “If everything is different every week, the government shouldn’t be surprised if nobody supports the measures anymore,” he said – and criticized the fact that “even the third health minister is staggering disoriented through the pandemic”.
In a broadcast from the FPÖ, there was “heavy criticism” of the reintroduction of the “mask requirement”. The new health minister had “apparently capitulated to the corona hysterics and the ‘experts’ fearing for their screen presence,” said party leader Herbert Kickl. From his point of view, the Corona guidelines were “completely free of evidence and tightened without need”. Because “despite the high number of positive test results due to excessive testing, there is not even a hint of the hospitals being overburdened or to be feared,” said Kickl.
“The Lesser Evil”
The trade accepted the return to the FFP2 mask in view of the increasing number of infections – if only “to limit absences among employees”, as Rainer Trefelik, chairman of the federal trade division in the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ), emphasized. In a broadcast, he also pointed out that the trade situation, exacerbated by the Ukraine war, was still very difficult.
For the trade association, the new general mask requirement is “at least the lesser evil”. With an FFP2 mask, shopping is safe, as countless studies have shown. The obligation must also apply to night gastronomy, noted managing director Rainer Will, “otherwise the measure will have no effect”. He also pleaded for a change in the quarantine regulations – following all, trade is also suffering from the loss of personnel. Will reiterated the proposal for mandatory free testing for infected workers following five days.
