Austria's Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) has published an amendment to the Corona entry regulation. This comes into force on Saturday, January 7, 2023 and includes, among other things, that people who have previously been in China must present a negative PCR test.

What is completely new is that Austria is asking airlines to check the PCR results. In the past there was no explicit instruction that the airlines have to check this. This is different now, because the amendment to the entry regulations explicitly stipulates that the airlines have to check whether there is a negative PCR result that is not older than 48 hours. Otherwise carriage may be refused. Furthermore, information leaflets about current hygiene measures are to be distributed to people entering the airport at Vienna-Schwechat Airport.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Health, the airlines concerned were informed in advance of the new procedure. However, just a few days ago, the Austrian authorities did not consider the obligation to submit negative PCR results from people who had previously been in China to be sensible. It is all the more surprising that Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) is “satisfied with the rapid implementation”: “The recommendations that the EU states have adopted as part of the European IPCR crisis response mechanism ensure that we can quickly identify possible new virus variants and minimize the risk of spread”. The government member is "currently" not worried that the corona situation in Austria could worsen due to the latest developments in China.

The ministry also announced that a first sample had already been taken from the waste water tank of a plane that took off from Beijing. This will now be analyzed. In Vienna, Hallstatt and Salzburg, too, there are plans to intensify wastewater monitoring, since Chinese tourists often stay in these places. "The national wastewater monitoring provides us with reliable information on the development of the virus load over time and the relative proportion of virus variants in Austria. This information is an important pillar for assessing the overall epidemiological situation in Austria," said Rauch.