Kurz: 'not appropriate to panic' over virus

(24 Feb 2020) Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Monday it was "not appropriate to panic" over a viral outbreak which began in China and has infected more than 79,000 people globally.

Speaking at a news conference on Monday in Vienna, Kurz assured Austrians the country was placing further containment meassures in place to avoid the spread of the disease from the neighbouring country, Italy, in which five deaths have been confirmed.

Austria temporarily halted rail traffic across its border with Italy on Sunday.

"We are going to tighten the warning mesh even further together with our neighbours. If there's a suspected case we are going to immediately close the border as we did yesterday. Additionally we are going to make preparations to expand the fever checks," he said.

China still has the vast majority of cases, but as it records lower levels of new infections, attention has shifted to new fronts in the outbreak.



Find out more about AP Archive:

Twitter:

Facebook:

Google+:

Tumblr:

Instagram:





You can license this story through AP Archive:

AP Archive,4256076,74281bf92c9a45109f1fcf74ec9b1fbc,Austria Virus,Austria,Western Europe,Vienna,Health,Government and politics,