A recent spike in coronavirus cases in Austria has prompted the government to make face masks compulsory in more public areas and limit public gatherings to 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors, Reuters reports.
664 new Covid-19 diagnoses were made in the last day, for a total of 31,827 since the epidemic's outbreak, the highest increase since the end of March, after which the country swiftly gained control over the epidemic. 750 people have died so far, with one death reported in the last day.
"It's getting serious again," said Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. "Our clear aim as a government is to avoid a second lockdown for Austria. We will, however, only succeed if everyone does their part." He added that measures would be tightened further if cases continued to rise.