Austria to reintroduce stricter measures

(Patria) - Austria will tighten rules on wearing masks and social distancing at public events and in restaurants from Monday, in response to a rise in coronavirus infections in the country, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Friday.

Masks will be mandatory in shops, public transport and schools outside classrooms from Monday, he said. Private gatherings will be limited to 50 participants indoors and 100 outdoors, while professionally organised seated events will be able to receive 1,500 people inside and 3,000 outside.

The daily number of infections has been rising since June and climbed to 644 on Thursday, the highest since the end of March when the initial rise in infections began to fall due to a national lockdown.

"Especially because the summer went well and people cannot believe that the numbers are rising again, I call on all of us to take the situation seriously," Kurz told a news conference.