Time Course of COVID-19 Cases in Austria

Abstract

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus, which first appeared in China in late 2019, and reached pandemic distribution in early 2020. The first major outbreak in Europe occurred in Northern Italy where it spread to neighboring countries, notably to Austria, where skiing resorts served as a main transmission hub. Soon, the Austrian government introduced strict measures to curb the spread of the virus. Using publicly available data, we assessed the efficiency of the governmental measures. We assumed an average incubation period of one week and an average duration of infectivity of 10 days. One week after the introduction of strict measures, the increase in daily new cases was reversed, and the reproduction number dropped. The crude estimates tended to overestimate the reproduction rate in the early phase. Publicly available data provide a first estimate about the effectiveness of public health measures. However, more data are needed for an unbiased assessment.

Time Course of COVID-19 epidemic in Algeria: Retrospective estimate of the actual burden

“…Since the first outbreak in Wuhan, China, on December 2019 (Chaolin, et al, 2020;Tan, et al, 2020), the virus spread has reached incrementally the five continents (7,7 million reported cases and more than 428 thousand deaths as of June 14, 2020) (JHU, 2020). First, the pandemic has reached neighbouring Chinese countries in South-East Asia, afterwards, by the end of January 2020, first single cases were reported in the United States (23 January), Brazil (25 February), and in Europe (France: 24 January; Germany: 27 January; Italy and United Kingdom: 31 January; and Spain: 1 February) (Hanns, Michael, & Kathrin, 2020).…”

COVID-19: the Austrian experience

“…Florian Heger 1,2 , Hanns Moshammer 2,3 The overall effects of these public health measures need further evaluation. The adverse side effects of the lock-down include an economic and psychological burden for the society as a whole and for individuals.…”

“…Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, Vienna, Austria 2. Medical University of Vienna, Department of Environmental Health, Vienna, Austria 3. Medical University of Karakalpakstan, Nukus, Uzbekistan, Nukus, Uzbekistan.…”

COVID-19 – sharing experiences of Medical Universities

“…When countries were hit by the new disease after a phase of shock and denial most experienced a steep learning curve and implemented different public health measures [7]. But it soon also became necessary to warn against an uncritical use of disinfectants [8] that might, if wrongly applied, not only be useless, but also harmful.…”