Austria Sets Course From Lockdown After Leading Europe in Freeze
- Kurz acted fast when ski resorts blamed as superspreaders
- Coalition government now sees phased recovery after Easter
Sebastian Kurz, second right, arrives for a press conference in Vienna on April 6.
Photographer: Helmut Fohringer/AFP via Getty Images
When Chancellor Sebastian Kurz locked down Austria on March 11, among the first countries to do so, barely more than 200 of its people had tested positive for the coronavirus and nobody had died.
The economy hit a wall as the ski season was cut short and businesses from hotels in Vienna to car factories in Styria closed. Unemployment rose to the highest level since World War II. Yet early social distancing put a sudden brake on new infections, kept the number of severe cases moderate, and undoubtedly limited fatalities. Now Austria is planning the first steps to restart its economy as soon as next week, the first European country to do so.